Bitcoin (BTC-USD) has rebounded from a late February trough of just under $35,000 amid developments in Russian invasion of Ukraine. Cryptocurrencies have largely decoupled from equities markets in the past week as new data showed a recent spike in transactions for Bitcoin and stablecoins like Tether (USDT-USD).
CoinDesk Global Macro Editor and TV Anchor Emily Parker believes that the current geopolitical environment is especially encouraging for the adoption of cryptocurrency.
“So with the obvious disclaimer that we never know what moves Bitcoin’s price, there are a lot of conditions right now that are definitely ripe for crypto adoption,” Parker told Yahoo Finance Live. “So if you look at Russia specifically, you have reports of long lines at ATMs as people are racing to withdraw cash. The ruble is basically collapsing. People are looking for a safe haven asset. Bitcoin is supposed to be a safe haven asset.”
Parker joined Yahoo Finance Live to discuss Bitcoin’s latest price jump, the state of the Russian economy, and the outlook for cryptocurrencies in light of developments in Ukraine.
In addition to other practical use cases, Parker also pointed to the influx of crypto donations that have been sent to Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion. According to blockchain analysis firm Elliptic, Ukrainian government and non-governmental entities have received nearly $40 million in crypto assets since the invasion started.
“The donations include $5.8 million donated from Gavin Wood, the creator of cryptocurrency Polkadot (DOT-USD) as well as a CryptoPunk NFT worth more than $200,000, in addition to thousands of donations in Bitcoin, ether (ETH-USD), Polkadot and other digital tokens,” Yahoo Finance’s David Hollerith wrote.
Sanctioning Russian crypto assets
Amid calls for the suspension of Russian crypto accounts on exchanges like Binance, questions have arisen surrounding how digital assets should be treated with regard to sanctions. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao called it “unethical” to suspend all Russian accounts on its platform, but the company announced on Thursday that cardholders of sanctioned Russian banks would not be able to use them on Binance and confirmed that sanctioned individuals have had their access restricted.
And while Parker understands Binance’s stance — she believes it “violates the spirit of crypto” to impose a blanket suspension on the accounts of ordinary Russian citizens — she expects calls for crypto account suspensions to ramp up due to the perception that crypto can be used to circumvent sanctions. However, Parker disputed the efficacy of crypto for this purpose.
“Sort of the whole idea of the blockchain is that it’s transparent and that Bitcoin transactions are recorded,” she said. “So it takes time. It takes effort. It takes skill. But there are ways to identify sanctioned accounts or sanctioned wallets. So if somebody is trying to move a huge amount of money from one country to another, I don’t think it’s that easy to do that in a way that nobody is going to pick up on.”
Thomas Hum is a writer at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter @thomashumTV
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