The Bitcoin community has been electrified by claims that Russia could soon plough billions into Bitcoin to protect its national wealth from US sanctions.

Speculation about Moscow’s plans to become a huge cryptocurrency investor has sparked hopes that 2019 will be the year in which Bitcoin recovers from its disastrous collapse in value.

However, both Russia and the crypto world are known to be filled with smoke and mirrors so there’s no way of telling whether Putin really is planning to become a Bitcoin mega-investor.

The rumours started on the back of an article on an Australian cryptocurrency website called Micky, which spoke to a Russian economist and cryptocurrency expert who predicted his country would start to invest in Bitcoin.




‘US sanctions may be mitigated only through Bitcoin use,’ the Russian is quoted as saying.

‘Because of US sanctions, Russia’s elite is forced to dump US assets and US dollars and invest hugely into Bitcoins.

‘The Central Bank of Russia sits on $466 billion of reserves and has to diversify in case there are limited opportunities to do it in the future.’

Of course, this is not a cast-iron guarantee that Russia really will start to invest in Bitcoin.

But if it does pump billions into the virtual market, you can expect price rises to be fast and dramatic.

The past year has been dismal for Bitcoin. At the end of 2017, one coin was worth a whopping $20,000 but it’s now worth just over $3.600.

And the Russia rumours failed to lift Bitcoin from its slough of despond. which took a major 10% nosedive today.