Russians collectively hold about $130b in crypto

[DaveF]

I really doubt this data point, because this data would only be formed using the bank transactions of Many Russians which have added their money into the exchanges or wallets like coinbase for purchasing bitcoin, it will largely exclude information of those who have held it on a private key wallet and have received the bitcoins from some other method. Because it's impossible for Russian authorities to differentiate which wallets belong to Russians. and to be honest the private key holders must be the ones having the major chunk. As per an estimate done a few months back only 6% of total bitcoins are there on exchanges so calculating it that way $130B might just be 5-10% of the total Iceberg.

Although its pure speculation that could be what they are going by, or something similar.
i.e. all the exchanges that reported to them came to $13 billion. So multiply by 10 and come up with $130.
Since they will not say how they got the number, if we do believe it to be true, then it's as likely a scenario as any.

-Dave

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[BIT-BENDER]

This Is huge especially from a country everyone is trying to distance themselves away from even so many crypto affiliated companies, I think right from time Russia has been interested and involved in the digital world so am not surprised that at this moment they are holding that amount.
But what does this signify, firstly we have to note that by this it means Russia are a crypto-Currency crazy country and this leads me to ask does sanctioning a country even it’s innocent citizens from carrying out their crypto-currency activities.

[batang_bitcoin]

They are just showing to us that there is a safe haven .. an escape from the sanctions ... that there is a solution around them . not just showing certain numbers for nothing , could be mean they are holding nothing bbut bullshit , could be a serious one as well as they are planning to accept cryptocurrency as a payment method for the gas & oil exports.

What an extraordinary way in the middle of crypto community uncertainity. wish just it would happened.

We all thought about it and it's no secret so they have an option to avoid sanctions. Or not actually avoid it but an alternative that has been there sleeping and they've not noticed it before.
But now, that they're in an economic downturn, this is what they've leaning on and any country can do that. That's actually a big money that they've got in reserve on crypto.

[Woodie]

The Russian prime minister has claimed that Russians collectively hold more 10 trillion rubles($130b) in cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. Lots of Russians probably bought bitcoin when it seemed like the ruble was going to nosedive due to the expected sanctions at the early phases of the war while some are buying cryptocurrencies to be able to get money out of the country

Whether the Russians bought crypto as a counter measure to protect their wealth against a supposedly nosediving ruble, these guys presence can't not be ignored! It's just unfortunate that what's happening at the moment has their leader painting a bad name for their country but otherwise we have whales 🐋  up north that can contribute to cryptos growth...possibly what is lacking atm.

[Slow death]

The only time when bitcoins can be linked to Russian people, is when it touched regulated centralized services... or when those bitcoins are spend on products and services that link those customers to Russian citizens. 

even if centralized exchanges have people's data, how does the russian government have this information? we all know that most centralized exchanges are unlicensed and the owners are anonymous people so how did the russian government get all this information? Will the Russian government keep demanding that anonymous exchanges provide data on Russian customers and even non-Russian customers? besides that I always heard the Russian government talking bad about bitcoin and I well remember them saying that they had china as a partner in case they cut swift, the russian government doesn't like bitcoin

I wonder what is going to happen once this war is over...... will we see a sudden dump ....or will it be a slow dump over a longer period. 

the price of bitcoin is already falling at a frightening level, we have dropped to $34700

[Maestro75]

I do not think it is true. It is a rumor.

Think again, its true.

Binance said Polina Kovaleva, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s stepdaughter, and Elizaveta Peskova, President Vladimir Putin’s representative Dmitry Peskov’s daughter, were among those barred over the last two months.
The cryptocurrency exchange also said that it had blocked Kirill Malofeyev, the son of Konstantin Malofeyev, a Russian oligarch previously charged with violating US sanctions.

This is bad indeed. It is like visiting the sins of the parents on the children. These children may not be in support of what their parents are doing. They may even have hated Putin because of the war he caused but they are now here being punished for what they hate. The damage Putin has caused with this war is very devastating. Putin should be made to suffer all this and not innocent people associated with him by blood or job. Also all this is not good for the image of Binance. They are going to lose customers because of invasion of privacy.

[Rikafip]

even if centralized exchanges have people's data, how does the russian government have this information?

They simply ask the owners to give them data, and Russians already did that with Binance who wholeheartedly gave them what they asked for, and same thing will happen when your government asks them for data about you. It's just a matter of time before all centralized exchanges start sharing all the data about their customers to the governments on the regular basis.

we all know that most centralized exchanges are unlicensed and the owners are anonymous people so how did the russian government get all this information?

From where you get that, that owners of centralized exchanges are anonymous? Simply google who is the owner of Binance, FTX, Kucoin, Coinbase and I am sure that you will realize that they are not anonymous at all and are all registered somewhere.

the price of bitcoin is already falling at a frightening level, we have dropped to $34700

Dunno, for me that's not frightening level all. I mean, less than a year ago bitcoin was even lower and then few months later it reached new all time high. If anything. its a chance to accumulate more bitcoin.

They may even have hated Putin because of the war he caused but they are now here being punished for what they hate.

Somehow I doubt that they hate Putin as thanks to them their parents became rich and powerful that enables them comfortable life. Don't worry, they are not some random poor kids that will be affected greatly with it and on top of that they got crash course on why its not smart to rely on centralized exchange.

[Mauser]

The Russian prime minister has claimed that Russians collectively hold more 10 trillion rubles($130b) in cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. Lots of Russians probably bought bitcoin when it seemed like the ruble was going to nosedive due to the expected sanctions at the early phases of the war while some are buying cryptocurrencies to be able to get money out of the country

That is a large amount of crypto currencies held by just one country. I wasn't aware that Russia had such kind of wealth prepositioned into cryptos before the war. Not a bad idea to be honest. Putin must have anticipated large scale of sanctions against Russia and help to prepare his country to go around them in some kind of form. International bank accounts and super yachts where very quickly seized by the western countries, but with crypto currencies it is much harder to block them. The only question is now if Russia would like to sell all those crypto coins quickly, who would buy them and in which currencies would they be able to sell. Receiving large amounts of Dollars or Euros wouldn't help much Russia right now, because they can't spend them.

[TheNineClub]

The Russian prime minister has claimed that Russians collectively hold more 10 trillion rubles($130b) in cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. Lots of Russians probably bought bitcoin when it seemed like the ruble was going to nosedive due to the expected sanctions at the early phases of the war while some are buying cryptocurrencies to be able to get money out of the country

they might, but I am not sure what good that does in a country where you can't really buy your basics with crypto. Will they hand over that crypto to the government that can in return finance the war through crypto? Will the holdings eleviate the troubles of average people imposed by sanctions? No, no it won't so this dosen't mean much.

[coinism]

Although its pure speculation that could be what they are going by, or something similar.
i.e. all the exchanges that reported to them came to $13 billion. So multiply by 10 and come up with $130.
Since they will not say how they got the number, if we do believe it to be true, then it's as likely a scenario as any.

This is what 5th generation of warfare is i.e. spreading misinformation largely through digital media. Right now Russian rubble is at its highest values at-least in one year, today 1 Russian rubble equal 0.015 USD. I don't understand the reason for putting money in bitcoin when rubble is doing so good? May be President Putin or someone from his team may answer that.

[Flexystar]

That’s not useful though. Considering the current situation in Russia these funds either will be forced to be withdrawn in Russian bank accounts and use for the war or May be Putin will simply threaten to ban crypto if the people of Russia don’t do it. That’s enormous money but it’s useless as Russia is going through worst vertical of the time. I feel sad for Russians actually. So many of them were involved in the crypto space and now the situation is like they have it but they don’t have it!! What would they do if the ban comes in as result of deteriorating financial situation.

[speedy963]

Centralized exchanges would always work in this way, you can't use them and not expect to be censored, locked out of your funds, banned/account blocked for one reason or the other, even if you are not from Russia, and even if this war didn't happen, as long as you use centralized exchanges and store your funds in them, the funds are not yours, and they can pull up one policy against you at absolutely anytime, and you lose your funds, not to even talk of hacks. Overall Russian citizens who use Bitcoin/crypto should stay away from centralized exchanges, at least for now, if they want to buy and sell crypto they should do so through p2p outside of a centralized exchange.

That's right which is why experienced people have always opted for p2p transactions or decentralized exchanges. The thing about this though is that not everyone has access to good p2p trading platforms or reputable enough individuals to be trusted which makes depositing and withdrawing or exchanging fiat a bit more tedious or impossible without these centralized exchanges or custodial wallets. The worse part about banning is not getting your funds locked inside an exchange since people barely store huge amounts on exchanges nowadays. Instead, the thought of not being able to transact and exchange fiat to crypto or reverse is what makes this pretty upsetting.

[7788bitcoin]

even if centralized exchanges have people's data, how does the russian government have this information? we all know that most centralized exchanges are unlicensed and the owners are anonymous people so how did the russian government get all this information? Will the Russian government keep demanding that anonymous exchanges provide data on Russian customers and even non-Russian customers? besides that I always heard the Russian government talking bad about bitcoin and I well remember them saying that they had china as a partner in case they cut swift, the russian government doesn't like bitcoin

This is the same question i was thinking, how would the government come to an assumption that Russians are holding $130 billion worth of cryptocurrencies when majority will be trading from exchanges that are not even regulated and there are users that mine the coin. The government can get the data from the exchanges that are functioning in Russia.

[CaVO32]

even if centralized exchanges have people's data, how does the russian government have this information? we all know that most centralized exchanges are unlicensed and the owners are anonymous people so how did the russian government get all this information? Will the Russian government keep demanding that anonymous exchanges provide data on Russian customers and even non-Russian customers? besides that I always heard the Russian government talking bad about bitcoin and I well remember them saying that they had china as a partner in case they cut swift, the russian government doesn't like bitcoin

This is the same question i was thinking, how would the government come to an assumption that Russians are holding $130 billion worth of cryptocurrencies when majority will be trading from exchanges that are not even regulated and there are users that mine the coin. The government can get the data from the exchanges that are functioning in Russia.

They are just estimating here, I don't think they have the resources to get the full picture of crypto holdings of their people. Based from the article itself, they mentioned that it came from various estimates, it means, they don't have the precise figures. But even if this number is just an estimate, it means, Russians are into crypto especially during this war as they are finding options on how to save their money or how to move their money without facing so much trouble. We can't blame them because right now, the situation needs quick thinking on how to secure your assets safely and cheap. Their government may also fast track crypto regulations as they would want to get money from this market as much as possible, for additional sources of income.

[Slow death]

we all know that most centralized exchanges are unlicensed and the owners are anonymous people so how did the russian government get all this information?

From where you get that, that owners of centralized exchanges are anonymous? Simply google who is the owner of Binance, FTX, Kucoin, Coinbase and I am sure that you will realize that they are not anonymous at all and are all registered somewhere.

 

how many exchanges are there? the answer is simple:

there are 307 exchanges.

source: https://coinmarketcap.com/rankings/exchanges/

of these 307 exchanges that exist, how many do you know the owners? less than 10? or 20? the reality has always been that exchange owners are anonymous, look at yobit? do you know who owns yobit? I doubt anyone knows who the owners of yobit are

the price of bitcoin is already falling at a frightening level, we have dropped to $34700

Dunno, for me that's not frightening level all. I mean, less than a year ago bitcoin was even lower and then few months later it reached new all time high. If anything. its a chance to accumulate more bitcoin.

this is a dangerous zone, if the price drops lower than that, it reaches $30,000 and keeps falling then it can go down to $20,000 so it is a dangerous zone

[Rikafip]

of these 307 exchanges that exist, how many do you know the owners? less than 10? or 20?

By name I know only two, Sam Bankman from FTX (even him I had to think hard to remember) and CZ from Binance but not because its hard to find the rest, but because I don't care who is behind them.

the reality has always been that exchange owners are anonymous, look at yobit?

Just because you or me don't know who is behind some exchange doesn't mean that owners are anonymous, you are mixing those two terms. Speaking of that, I also don't know who is the owner of my bank and he certainly can't be anonymous. You see, even shitty centralized exchanges like Yobit are registered somewhere by someone, and in the case of Yobit that place is Panama.

do you know who owns yobit? I doubt anyone knows who the owners of yobit are

Honestly I never bothered to check who is behind Yobit but since you asked I googled it up a bit and it took me like one minute to find out that Yobit founder is a guy named Pavel Krymov (known for bunch of other scams beside Yobit) while current CEO is iyoi tobi.

[justdimin]

The Russian prime minister has claimed that Russians collectively hold more 10 trillion rubles($130b) in cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. Lots of Russians probably bought bitcoin when it seemed like the ruble was going to nosedive due to the expected sanctions at the early phases of the war while some are buying cryptocurrencies to be able to get money out of the country

That’s not that bad, I mean I expected more to be fair because they have a top heavy level of rich in their nation, just like USA for example, and that usually ended up being thrown into bitcoin because of all the sanctions.

This is the reason, I assumed that at least this much would have been in crypto in order to both avoid possibly of it getting confiscated by anyone, your bitcoins are your own and nobody could take them from you but at the same time I expected it to be lower because with the sanctions I assumed they would have sent these to fiat of another nation like UAE or whatever to keep alive for a while during the war but I guess they didn't need that.

[SirLancelot]

The Russian prime minister has claimed that Russians collectively hold more 10 trillion rubles($130b) in cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. Lots of Russians probably bought bitcoin when it seemed like the ruble was going to nosedive due to the expected sanctions at the early phases of the war while some are buying cryptocurrencies to be able to get money out of the country

That’s not that bad, I mean I expected more to be fair because they have a top heavy level of rich in their nation, just like USA for example, and that usually ended up being thrown into bitcoin because of all the sanctions.

This is the reason, I assumed that at least this much would have been in crypto in order to both avoid possibly of it getting confiscated by anyone, your bitcoins are your own and nobody could take them from you but at the same time I expected it to be lower because with the sanctions I assumed they would have sent these to fiat of another nation like UAE or whatever to keep alive for a while during the war but I guess they didn't need that.

They simply use the public to take their money and that is why the top is so heavy. The difference between the USA and the Russian rich is that the Americans use the liberal laws to use the cheap labor (cheap is comparatively used here versus their standard of living) and pay very little taxes and just be an "evil corporation" that way, whereas Russians literally steal money from the public, and they are corrupted and they use bribery and other forms in order to get rich.

I believe it's equally bad, but one of them have democracy at least. This 130 billion for example is a lot of money, but definitely not clean money if you ask me, probably there for money laundering, at least most of it.

[Argoo]

I don’t know how true the figures are about the presence of 130 billion dollars worth of cryptocurrencies in Russian citizens, but in any case, this figure will soon change very sharply in the direction of its decrease. This will be facilitated by the current war of Russia in Ukraine. Regardless of the outcome of this war, life in Russia will become very difficult, and if the war is defeated, which is most likely, this country will turn from a superpower into a third-rate country with a high level of poverty and other negative processes that accompany this.
Many will leave Russia, and it will be easier for those who own large amounts of cryptocurrency. Whoever remains will be forced to spend their cryptocurrency on a more expensive life.

[amishmanish]

Its not suprising at all. Russia is one of the biggest bitcoin holder, infact all major economies including USA, China and europeans hold big reserves of bitcoin and possibly some of the hidden treasures of bit coin are deliberately held by anonymous individuals, who actually are waiting for the true rise of bitcoin economy. Who knows they are no other than Putin or maybe CIA.
But I feel bad for both common ukrainians and common russians