Ginko doubled down on his previous comments. He told Bitcoinist: 1.8 million BTC were bought by Russian companies and wealthy Russians. There is no direct involvement of Russian state but some who buy bitcoin are awaiting that the increasing US sanctions will make impossible to do international transactions as usual so they purchase bitcoin as a way to circumvent US sanctions. According to Ginko, Russia’s pivot towards Bitcoin is due to mounting sanctions by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). The Kremlin economist, says Russian oligarchs are stockpiling BTC to ensure continued oil ... (full story)