The ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine has created anxiety in both the crypto and traditional markets. Over the past two weeks, any attempt for Bitcoin to make an uptrend has been deterred by a downtrend.
The co-founder of Ethereum, Joe Lubin, who is also the founder of ConsenSys, believes that the Russia-Ukraine crisis could significantly boost the adoption of cryptocurrencies.
Russia-Ukraine crisis will boost crypto adoption
Lubin was speaking during Cap Ethereal 2022, an event sponsored by decrypt, where he addressed the situation between Russia and Ukraine and the effects that it could cause to the crypto space. He noted that crypto was a powerful weapon that Ukraine could use to aid it in the battle with Russia.
“It represents crossing the chasm into mainstream adoption. Now we’re onto national security issues. It’s going to be so profound, a point of no return for our industry because it’s clear that our technology is very powerful and unstoppable,” Lubin said.
Lubin further compared the current situation with the global cryptocurrency sector to an arms race. Nations are rushing to catch up with the cryptocurrency sector, and the remaining ones only can embrace change and formulate policies that will support the growth of the sector.
Lubin further noted that the US was slow in boosting the adoption of cryptocurrencies within its borders. He mocked the recently hyped executive order on cryptocurrencies signed by the US president last Wednesday. The executive order required federal agencies to work together to monitor the digital asset sector.
The executive order also addressed the creation of a digital dollar. The digital dollar is a US central bank digital currency (CBDC). The Federal Reserve had earlier announced that it would not be hasty in developing a CBDC to ensure that it did it the right way.
Crypto in the Russia-Ukraine crisis
The situation between Russia and Ukraine has put cryptocurrencies in the limelight. Over the past two weeks, more than $60 million has been donated to the Ukrainian government and humanitarian organizations in the country.
Last week, the Ukrainian government noted that it had used part of the donated funds to buy military equipment and food supplies. The country is also developing an NFT collection. The digital asset minister of Ukraine, Alex Bornyakov, has stated that this NFT drop will be “like a museum of war.” Each NFT will harbour a piece of digital art that depicts the developments in the war.
Out of the donated digital assets was a CryptoPunk NFT. This NFT is valued at around $200,000, and the Ukrainian government has stated that it is yet to sell this NFT, but it might do so once it understands the technicalities involved.
Cryptocurrency trading activities in Ukraine have been significantly high over the past few weeks due to the growing fear of the country’s economic future. The same increase in crypto trading activities has also been witnessed in Russia. This has posed concerns that Russia could use crypto to avoid sanctions levied by the US and its Western allies.
In late February, Mykhailo Fedorov, the vice prime minister of Ukraine, had requested all major exchanges to halt their operations in Russia. However, some of the popular exchanges denied this request, including Binance, Coinbase and Kraken. The exchanges noted they would only ban users or entities that have been sanctioned.
Fedorov has also urged Tether to halt Russian transactions. In a tweet, he stated, “Today, the entire democratic world has united against Russia to punish the bloody invaders economically. I call on [Tether] and [Paolo Ardoino] to stop any transactions with the Russians! For peace!”
This news is republished from another source. You can check the original article here