Russia would be considering receiving bitcoin as payment for oil and gas

Andy VilchezFollow

Apr 20, 20222 min de lectura

Recently it became known that Russia would be demanding "enemy" countries to pay for their oil and gas with rubles. This was a move by Russia to stop the devaluation of its currency by forcing the rest of the countries to buy rubles.

However, today, the president of the energy committee, Pavel Zavalny, has said that the country could be willing to be more "flexible" with friendly countries.

Among the possibilities they handle are payments in the buyer's local currency or even bitcoin. It was said that these proposals were on the table and would be evaluated to determine their feasibility.

From the moment of the announcement, the speculation around bitcoin did not wait and the cryptocurrency increased its value by 4%. If this is the case, this would mean that we could start to see large transactions with this coin.

In any case, according to their own statements, the first option would be to receive local currency from those countries. For example, in the case of China, the country could pay in yuan. Similarly, a country like Turkey could pay with Turkish lira.

A change of position in Moscow

Let us remember that the government of Vladimir Putin has not had a very good relationship with bitcoin. In fact, in 2021 he said that he recognized that bitcoin has a value, but that he would not be convinced that it could replace the dollar or other currencies for oil transactions.

Apparently the sanctions imposed on Russia and its disconnection from the SWIFT system would have been enough to change its mind.

While it is only a possibility so far that Russia will start accepting bitcoins, the mere fact that it is on the table is a red flag for the world of cryptocurrencies.

The transactions that are carried out for the sale of oil are in the millions, so the effect that this may have on the ecosystem is not known with certainty. In addition, the fact that a country with Russia has reserves in bitcoin would greatly limit the amount in circulation, which would trigger its price.