Bitcoin has surpassed the market capitalisation of the Russian rouble following a recent surge that has seen it climb to $43,000. The cryptocurrency has a market cap of $777.6bn, compared to $770.9bn for the rouble.
A number of economic sanctions imposed on Russia as a result of its invasion of Ukraine has seen its currency nosedive, dropping to a record US$0.01 on Monday, according to Yahoo finance. The Western nations have also introduced sanctions on some Russian banks that have banned or limited their access to SWIFT, a global bank payment system.
Russia has responded by doubling interest rates to 20% to “help maintain financial and price stability and protect citizens’ savings from depreciation,” the Bank of Russia said in a statement.