Now Bitcoin Is More Valuable Than The Russian Ruble

Bitcoins are more valuable than rubles. (Aleksi Raisa-Unsplash)

JAKARTA – Bitcoin market capitalization experienced a significant spike in early March. Therefore, that price also boosted the price of Bitcoin (BTC) to the level of 41,000 US dollars per coin. The market capitalization of BTC managed to surpass the Russian ruble.

The rebound in the Bitcoin price was likely triggered by the Russian ruble experiencing inflation due to sanctions imposed by the United States and its allies in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

According to data from CoinMarketCap, the market cap of Bitcoin (BTC) jumped to around 780 billion US dollars on Monday amid rising prices to 41,391 US dollars, an increase of 5.7 percent over the past 24 hours. BTC's market capitalization exceeds the money supply of the Russian ruble, which, according to the Central Bank of Russia, was 65.3 trillion rubles as of February 1 – roughly 629 billion US dollars at the time of publication.

On the other hand, Reuters reported the central bank raised its key interest rate from 9.5 percent to 20 percent on Monday, and the European Commission has announced plans to remove Russian banks from the SWIFT payment system.

In contrast, many residents of Russia and Ukraine appear to have encouraged trading activity on exchanges, perhaps due to concerns about the stability of each country's fiat currency and using cryptocurrencies as a means of soliciting donations aimed at supporting Ukraine.

Cointelegraph reported on February 24 – the same day that the Russian troops launched their attack – the ancient Ukraine-based crypto exchange had around $4.4 million in total trading volume of all tokens over a 24-hour period.

The latest reversal comes more than a year after BTC price surged to an all-time high of $48,200 following news of $1.5 billion in crypto assets. Bitcoin's market cap rose to 871 billion US dollars, surpassing the Russian ruble, then fell to around 791 billion US dollars.