Vladimir Putin: Crypto Volatility Is Colossal

Russian President Vladimir Putin has issued a warning against the risky and highly volatile nature of cryptocurrencies.

What Happened: Speaking at the Russia Calling Investment Forum, Putin said the development of cryptocurrency should be “closely monitored,” reported Russian publication Lenta.

“It is not backed by anything, the volatility is colossal, so the risks are very high. We also believe that we need to listen to those who talk about those big risks,” he said.

In October, Putin said cryptocurrencies can be used as a “store of value” but as of now, it was still too early.

“In order to transfer funds from one place to another, yes, but to trade, especially to trade in energy resources, in my opinion, is still premature,” said Putin at the time.

A November report from the Bank of Russia revealed that total annual volumes of crypto transactions in Russian exceed $5 billion each year.

Russians prefer to trade crypto on Binance, according to data from SimilarWeb, which reported that Russia accounts for the second-largest amount of traffic after Turkey on the crypto exchange.

Price Action: The market-leading digital asset Bitcoin BTC/USD was trading at $57,000, down 0.94% in the last 24 hours. The coin had a daily trading volume of $36 billion.

Photo by Executium on Unsplash.