Russian Federation covers a huge territory. Moreover, the country is home to more than 140 million people. According to the Bitcoin marketplace Paxful, interest in cryptocurrency peer-to-peer trading in the country increased by 350% on a year-over-year basis.
Based on the study conducted by Paxful, from the period of May 2019 to May 2020, an average monthly trading volume reached $4 million in Russia. According to Paxful, this result surpassed expectations together with the year-over-year usage increase figures.
Moreover, the last three-months saw a 42% increase, and the last month of spring was the best month when it comes to monthly performance amid the coronavirus pandemic. Based on the information provided by Paxful, the coronavirus pandemic is one of the major drivers of growth.
Paxful and Russians
According to the CEO of Paxful, a strong belief in the future of cryptocurrency combined with a lack of confidence in Russian banks helped to drive interest in cryptocurrencies. Moreover, Ray Youssef stated that the coronavirus pandemic created a wave of financial insecurity around the globe. As a result, this factor contributed to more peer-to-peer interactions within the crypto sector.
Furthermore, thanks to Bitcoin it is possible to offset economic changes that could occur due to the pandemic.
Russia has huge potential when it comes to cryptocurrencies. It is not surprising that the coronavirus lockdown caused Russia to start paying more attention to cryptocurrencies.
Last month, Russia’s legislative body passed a bill titled “On Digital Financial Assets” or DFA in its third final reading. It is worth mentioning that, DFA is expected to be officially adopted in Russia on Jan 1, 2021.
However, the bill titled “On Digital Currency” is more important than DFA. Interestingly, the State Duma expects to pass this bill during the autumn session. The autumn session ends in late December. As a result, Russian lawmakers have several months to pass this bill.
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