Аccording to CoinMarketCap’s price index, what happened was that the cryptocurrency reached above $41,000 on Monday afternoon, having traded below $35,000 as recently as Thursday.

The Ruble fell by around 25% in that same time period, reaching a new record low by dropping below $0.01 on Monday.

The fiat currency crash came amid increased sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, with the West introducing restrictions for some Russian banks to the global bank payments system SWIFT.

The latest bitcoin price surge was partly fuelled by customers exchanging Rubles for the cryptocurrency. Some market analysts suggest that BTC served as a store of value during times of increased geopolitical and economic uncertainty. Paolo Ardoino, CTO of the crypto exchange BitFinex, told The Independent that In these uncertain times, they have seen an uptick in the utility of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Photo credits: The Independent

The Financial Conduct Authority recently announced a crackdown on Binance, the world’s top crypto exchange by trading volume, restricting the company from carrying out regulated activities in the U.K.

Binance withdrew its application to register as a licensed crypto asset firm in the U.K. in May due to not meeting anti-money laundering requirements, the markets watchdog said.

While Binance is technically allowed to continue offering crypto trading to Brits, it was ordered by regulators to add a notice to its website saying it is not authorized to operate in the U.K.

For its part, Binance said the measures only targeted its U.K. entity, Binance Markets Limited, and would have no impact on services provided in the country by Binance.com.

But following the FCA’s restrictions, Binance has suffered subsequent setbacks in Britain. Customers were temporarily unable to make card withdrawals due to an issue with the U.K.’s Faster Payments system. Meanwhile, the bank Barclays has blocked customers from sending payments to the crypto exchange.

Binance’s woes in the U.K. have been a boon to its rivals, though, some of which have seen user numbers double since the FCA restrictions were announced.

The bill, one of the world’s strictest policies against cryptocurrencies, plans to criminalise possession, issuance, mining, trading and transferring crypto-assets. The measure is in line with a January government agenda that called for banning private virtual currencies while building a framework for an official digital currency. The holders of cryptocurrencies will have up to six months to liquidate, after which penalties will be levied.

Even China, which has banned mining and trading, does not penalise possession. Therefore, if the ban becomes law, India would be the first major economy to make holding cryptocurrency illegal.

Bitcoin, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency, hit a record high of $60,000 on Saturday, nearly doubling in value this year. In India, despite government threats of a ban, transaction volumes are swelling and 8 million investors now hold $1.4 billion in crypto-investments, however, no official data is available. One crypto-investor noted:

“The money is multiplying rapidly every month and you don’t want to be sitting on the sidelines. Even though people are panicking due to the potential ban, greed is driving these choices.”

Top Indian officials have called cryptocurrency a “Ponzi scheme”, but Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman this month eased some investor concerns.

“I can only give you this clue that we are not closing our minds, we are looking at ways in which experiments can happen in the digital world and cryptocurrency. There will be a very calibrated position taken.”

The plan is to ban private crypto-assets while promoting blockchain. The official added:

“We don’t have a problem with technology. There’s no harm in harnessing the technology.”

According to the government panel in 2019 there are jail terms of up to 10 years on people who mine, generate, hold, sell, transfer, dispose of, issue or deal in cryptocurrencies. The official said the discussions were in their final stages.

In March 2020, India’s Supreme Court struck down a 2018 order by the central bank forbidding banks from dealing in cryptocurrencies, prompting investors to pile into the market. The Reserve Bank of India voiced its concern again last month, citing what it said were risks to financial stability from cryptocurrencies. At the same time, the central bank has been working on launching its own digital currency.

Despite the market euphoria, investors are aware that the boom could be in danger.

Apple has seen a clear opportunity to offer a buying and selling mechanism for cryptocurrencies, a move that would allow the company to immediately gain a market share. Companies like Square and PayPal along with Coinbase, have all validated the exchange model as a real business. What would be in benefit of Apple is that the company has a strong security ecosystem.

For example, PayPal has climbed with 40% since it announced it would allow customers to buy and sell cryptocurrencies directly from their accounts. Also, we know what happened with Tesla on Monday and how it reflected on the market – the stock price of the electric cars maker grew with 1.3% and Bitcoin itself jumped with 16%. So the Apple decision is completely logical and we can expect more of the Big Tech companies to get involved with cryptocurrencies.

The RBC report even suggested that Apple could attract users to the service by buying 1 billion dollars in Bitcoin itself, more or less like Tesla did.

RBC analyst Mitch Steves said that such an initiative would require a limited R&D spend from Apple with potential to raise more than $40bn in annual revenue.

Apple getting involved in cryptocurrency could also make USA a leader in the crypto industry in the coming decades which would further the mainstreaming of Bitcoin by giving the cryptocurrency grounds for government support.