Russia’s currency needs help, but don’t count on Bitcoin

The decline of the Russian ruble earlier this week has caused a mass selloff of the currency in exchange for alternatives — including the cryptocurrency Bitcoin.

The ruble has declined roughly 50 percent since the beginning of the year. Earlier this week, the currency fell even further — an 11 percent drop in one day against the U.S. dollar. Following the collapse, Bitcoin-to-ruble transaction volumes popped up from a daily average of 230 trades over a 30-day period to 819 in the last two days, according to CNBC.

Though Russian President Vladimir Putin made swift efforts to mitigate the fall and the ruble has since stabilized, there is still a lot of uncertainty surrounding the future of the Russian economy… CONTINUE