After the Central Bank of Ukraine imposed restrictions on withdrawals, the trading volume of Kuna, a cryptocurrency exchange that offers ruble and hryvnia trading, increased significantly. In addition, to this day, crypto assets exchanged on Kuna, such as Bitcoin, Tether, and Ethereum, are trading at huge premiums.
Cryptocurrencies in Ukraine are seeing a premium
The conflict in Ukraine continued after the invasion of the territory by Russian troops. The United Nations (UN) estimates that about 100,000 Ukrainian citizens have fled the country in the past 24 hours.
Two days ago, after the Russian invasion, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) imposed a cash withdrawal cap of 100,000 hryvnia ($3,350) per day. The NBU launched the mission on February 24 after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky imposed martial law.
After the NBU's restricted authorization for cash withdrawals, cryptocurrency exchange Kuna's trading volume soared $3.5 million on Thursday. Kuna's trading volume jumped from $1.4 million to a high of $4.8 million, with most of these trading pairs being the hryvnia (UAH).
Immediately after the NBU's authorization to restrict cash withdrawals was enacted, trading volumes on the Kuna exchange soared.
Kuna's trading volume is still high, as the cryptocurrency exchange traded $780 million six days ago, but today, Kuna has a trading volume of $1.4 million. Not only does the exchange allow trading in the hryvnia (UAH), traders can also exchange coins in rubles (RUB).
Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Tether (USDT) on the Kuna exchange also have premiums, as tether is priced at $1.08 per token at the time of writing. Meanwhile, outside Ukraine, Tether (USDT) changed hands at $0.99 per coin.
Kuna exchanges the UAH currency pair on February 26, 2022 at 2:00 PM Eastern Standard Time.
In Kuna, using the Hryvnia (UAH) currency pair, a single Ethereum (ETH) currently trades at $2,982.83 per unit, while outside Ukraine, Ethereum trades at $2,770 per unit.
Bitcoin (BTC) changed hands at $42,106 when exchanged with the hryvnia (UAH) pair, as the premium was $3,124 more expensive than crypto assets outside the Kuna platform.
Localbitcoins.com Bitcoin (BTC) also shows a premium, as some sellers sell for as high as 1,296,879.12 UAH/BTC or $43,480 per coin. However, this week's localbitcoins.com indicators show that the trading volume in Ukraine is currently lower than usual.
Similarly, localbitcoins.com BTC trading volume in Russia has not seen any meaningful rise. In the case of Kuna, there is a RUB/BTC premium since BTC is exchanged for $40,705 or 3,414,848 rubles. There is also a premium for ETH/RUB on Kuna, but not as premium as for the UAH Ether swap.