Russians reportedly exchanged their rubles for crypto during the short-lived uprising of the Wagner Group and its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin.
While Bitcoin (BTC) is touted as digital gold for storing cash during war or disaster, Bloomberg reports that the revolt by the mercenary fighters of the Wagner group against the government of Russia sparked more interest in the stablecoin Tether (USDT) than in the flagship crypto asset.
Citing information from blockchain data firm CCData, the report says trading for ruble-denominated Tether rose by 300% to around $15 million on June 24th, around the time that the Wagner Group was heading towards Russia’s capital, Moscow, after taking control of one of the country’s largest cities, Rostov-on-Don.
The trades were made on platforms that continue to support the Russian currency. Most exchanges have delisted trading pairs in rubles because of the financial sanctions imposed against Russia for its illegal invasion of Ukraine.
According to CCData, the largest platforms for ruble transactions in June include Binance, Cryptonex, HitBTC and Coinsbit.
CCData communications manager Jamie Sly says the uptick in the trading volume for ruble-denominated Tether is due to market participants opting to hold less volatile assets since a similar trend in trading volume was not observed in Bitcoin.
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