Coronavirus Lockdown Boosts Bitcoin Trading in Russia

COVID-19 pandemic seems to be one of the drivers behind the recent sharp increase in Bitcoin trading volume across Russia.

On June 4, a new study performed by a number of Russia-based crypto exchanges revealed a significant rise in Bitcoin (BTC) trading across Russia since March amid the COVID-19 lockdown.

As RBC reports, representatives from the Russian offices of exchanges like Binance, Garantex, and EXMO, highlighted the growth in the number of users in Russia. This number is relative to the increase in trading volumes from March until June.

Boost in registrations from Russia users

Gleb Kostarev, head of the representative office of Binance in Russia, explained that the number of registrations on their platform during April 2020 was two times higher than in December of 2019.

He added:

“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 other hand, Sergey Mendelev, founder of Garantex, clarified that the increase in activity on cryptocurrency exchanges “is not associated with those people who withdraw money from deposits or receive payments from the budget.”

COVID-19 pandemic could explain the sharp increase in Russian’s BTC trading volume

That’s why United Traders analyst, Fedor Anaschenkov, believes that self-isolation from the pandemic coronavirus was one of the drivers that led to increased trading volumes.

The EXMO crypto exchange gave some figures to explain the sharp increase in BTC trading volumes. Their CEO, Sergey Zhdanov, stated that their site activity grew by about 15-20%, registering a 12% increase in Russian users. These figures were compared with the same period from March to May 2019.

Cointelegraph reported on June 12 that Russia is strengthening its leadership on major peer-to-peer exchange, LocalBitcoins, in the share of Bitcoin trading volumes, despite local cryptocurrency uncertainty.

The CryptoDiffer’s study was carried out, taking into account the months of April and May 2020.