Why Did Bitcoin Surge So Much Against the Ruble?

Last Tuesday, $CLEARSHARES PITON INTERMEDIATE FIXED INCOME ETF(BTC.US)$ hit an all-time high measured in rubles (RUB). Does that really mean anything?

Price feeds don’t tell the full story when comparing asset prices across different currencies, especially when one of those currencies is issued by a country facing financial sanctions for invading Ukraine (and the other is magic internet money).

A quick look at USD/RUB tells most of the story. One U.S. dollar was worth 84 rubles on Friday, Feb. 25 and over 114 rubles on Tuesday, March 1. With that type of devaluation, you might reasonably expect many assets priced in rubles to hit all-time highs soon, especially if the trend continues.

However, the ruble losing 37% of its U.S. dollar value would explain something around a 37% gain in “bitcoin in ruble” (USD and its stablecoin equivalents represent the most used trading pair for bitcoin, so this is an OK assumption). It wouldn’t immediately explain why bitcoin gained more than 55% (from 3.2 million to 4.9 million rubles); the excess gain suggests there was some other demand factor at play. Plus, the USD price of $BTC is still more than 50% off of all-time highs.