During the brief uprising of the Wagner Group and its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Russians reportedly exchanged their rubles for cryptocurrencies. While Bitcoin is often seen as a safe haven during times of war or disaster, it seems that the stablecoin Tether (USDT) gained more interest during this particular event. Trading for ruble-denominated Tether reportedly rose by 300% to around $15 million on June 24th, when the Wagner Group was approaching Moscow after taking control of Rostov-on-Don. These trades were conducted on platforms that still support the Russian currency, as many exchanges have delisted ruble trading pairs due to financial sanctions against Russia. The largest platforms for ruble transactions in June included Binance, Cryptonex, HitBTC, and Coinsbit. The increase in ruble-denominated Tether trading volume is attributed to market participants opting for less volatile assets, as a similar trend was not observed with Bitcoin.
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