Following the news that Russians are buying crypto as the rouble falls:

George Monaghan, Thematic Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers his view:

“Russians buying crypto actually represents a use case of the sort for which crypto was intended. Crypto, being decentralized, is less vulnerable to government regulations than FIAT currencies. Sanctions have excluded some Russian banks from SWIFT and Mastercard and VISA have frozen their operations in Russia, but it seems that Russians can still make crypto transactions. The Russian government has refused to open the Moscow stock exchange, but it seems Russians can still trade crypto assets.

“This activity reminds us what crypto was really meant to be, before the hype and the memecoins and the gains: decentralized and unregulated. No, the Russian government won’t be able to move all its operations into crypto and continue as normal. But citizens may be able to preserve some of their money.

“However, decentralization will not endear crypto to Western investors when it’s enabling Russia to bypass sanctions. This isn’t quite the David vs Goliath use case crypto advocates tend to raise. Calls for regulation will emphasize this example. US Senator Elizabeth Warren has already made arguments along these lines.

“To be clear, Russians aren’t buying crypto because it looks promising – it’s due to it appearing more stable than the rouble.”