After a solid start to the week, the Bitcoin rally has finally called down as the BTC price rests currently at $43,500 with 24% gains on the weekly charts. The Bitcoin and crypto market rally come on the backdrop of the major geopolitical situation panning out with the Russia-Ukraine war.
Reportedly, as the Russian Ruble collapses, Russians are moving their money into BTC and crypto, in big numbers. The recent cooldown in the crypto market comes as the EU mulls the possibility of expanding sanctions and seeing whether is Russia is using crypto to avoid sanctions from the West.
On Wednesday, March 2, German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said that members of the EU and the G7 are working to block Russians from evading the monetary sanctions.
James Butterfill, head of research at CoinShares told Bloomberg that the recent Bitcoin growth has been largely correlated with political instability. Trading in the Russian Ruble has surged to its highest levels since May last year.
Some lawmakers from Ukraine and the U.S. have also asked crypto exchanges to ban ordinary Russian citizens from trading in crypto. However, exchanges like Binance and Kraken have outrightly rejected the plea.
Bitcoin Whales Become Increasingly Active
On the other, the Bitcoin trading activity among whales has been increasing during the recent price pump. On-chain data provider Santiment reported:
While #Bitcoin hovers between $43k and $45k and traders await the next big swing, whales are becoming increasingly active in making massive transactions. In the last three days, there have been 13,400 $BTC transactions exceeding $1M in value.
While reports of Russian rubles trading volumes in BTC going up emerge, Ukrainians are also buying Bitcoin in increasing numbers.
Ukrainians piling into #bitcoin and $usdt with huge spikes in trading volume! pic.twitter.com/UmPYeYESgC
— Lark Davis (@TheCryptoLark) March 2, 2022
Along with Bitcoin, the broader cryptocurrency market seems to be taking some rest after the early week’s pump. Last week’s top performer Terra’s LUNA holds at $93.
