Covid-19 Lockdown Fuels Bitcoin Trading in Russia

A research conducted by several Russian cryptocurrency exchanges disclosed a considerable increase in Bitcoin (BTC) trading throughout Russia since March against the backdrop the Covid-19 shutdown.

Executives from the Russian offices of cryptocurrency exchange such as Garantex, Binance and EXMO underlined the increase in the number of Russian users.

The figure has direct correlation with the rise in trading volumes in the March-June period.

Gleb Kostarev, chief of Binance’ representative office in Russia, detailed that the quantum of registrations on their trading platform in April was twice greater than the figure recorded in December 2019.

He further stated:

“It is worth noting separately that the popularity of futures trading is growing among Russians. In April and May, trading volumes of these instruments are twice as high as in March and five times in January.”

On the contrary, Sergey Mendelev, founder of Garantex, explained that the rise in trading activity in cryptocurrency exchanges has nothing to do with those people who received government benefits or withdrawal from deposits.

Fedor Anaschenkov, United Traders analyst, trusts that seclusion due to Covid-19 pandemic was the main reason for the rise in trading volumes.

The EXMO cryptocurrency exchange provided some data to detail the sharp rise in BTC trading volumes. Their CEO, Sergey Zhdanov, stated that their site activity increased by roughly 15% to 20%, recording a 12% rise in Russian users.

These data were matched with that of similar period from (March-May) last year.

Russia is taking initiatives to cement its leadership of p2p (peer-to-peer) exchange, LocalBitcoins, by increasing its share in overall Bitcoin trading volumes, in spite of uncertainty about cryptos in the domestic market.

The CryptoDiffer’s research was conducted by taking April and May 2020 into account.