Bitcoin Price: "For example, bitcoin, who can prohibit it? No one."
That’s what Putin said during a plenary meeting while talking about the US dollar’s dominance as the global reserve currency. This positions him as the latest influential political leader, after Trump, to signal an inclination towards crypto.
On Wednesday, Bitcoin soared past the $100,000 mark for the first time, reigniting the optimism levels of digital currency supporters, who have witnessed a pure bloodbath in the prices for the past 2 years. On year-to-date, Bitcoin’s value has skyrocketed over 144 per cent as against the dollar. In the past four weeks alone, the cryptocurrency's value has surged by more than 50 per cent.
The meme cryptocurrency Dogecoin, started as a parody of Bitcoin, also witnessed a similar uptrend and has increased by more than 170 per cent in the past 1 month. Many are already expecting the meme coin to hit the $1 mark by the end of this year.
While the major push euphoric push came after Trump took back the Presidency crown last month, the recent comments by Russia's President also had a lot to do with the rally.
Does Putin Support Bitcoin?
It might be tricky to get a clear yes or no, but Putin did hint at his interest in digital currencies during the plenary meeting.
On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin raised doubts about maintaining state reserves in foreign currencies, pointing out their vulnerability to political confiscation.
When the Ukraine war began in 2022, Western countries froze around $300 billion of Russia's money, which it had earned from selling energy, according to a report by Reuters.
"A legitimate question: why accumulate reserves if they can be lost so easily?" Putin pointed out while addressing the investment conference. He suggested that it would be smarter to invest state savings in things like infrastructure, logistics, science and education, rather than keeping them in foreign assets.
He also criticised the current US administration for weakening the dollar’s role as the reserve currency in the global economy by using it for political purposes.
This has pushed many countries to look for other options, including cryptocurrencies. Putin also added that Bitcoin, as a currency, is something that no one can prohibit.
He also said that the development of new payment technologies is inevitable in the coming time, as they are cheaper and more reliable.
