Several isolated but seemingly connected developments have sparked wild speculations about bitcoin’s potential role in the global financial system.
First of all, Russia has floated the idea of accepting bitcoins as payment for its fossil fuel exports. Putin Zavalny said last week the Russian government would allow “friendly” countries, such as China, to pay in their currencies or in bitcoin for gas and oil.
“We have been proposing to China for a long time to switch settlements in national currencies, roubles and yuan, you can also trade bitcoins.” he added.
In Australia, there was another big move.
An Australian company, On The Run, will begin to accept bitcoin payments from its customers at over 170 BP stations. The company will be Australia’s largest retailer to accept cryptocurrency. To enable these transactions, it has partnered with Singapore-based trading firm Crypto.com to roll out processing terminals.
The Bigger Picture
The dollar has largely been the reserve currency when it comes to oil trading for much of the past century. It is for this reason that the dollar is often called the petrodollar.
Blackrock CEO, Larry Fink thinks the war will accelerate the adoption of digital assets:
“The war will prompt countries to re-evaluate their currency dependencies… Even before the war, several governments were looking to play a more active role in digital currencies and define the regulatory frameworks under which they operate,” he said.
Larry Fink, Blackrock CEO
BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes said “As gold marches its way above $10,000, bitcoin will march its way to $1,000,000. The bear market in fiat currencies will trigger the largest wealth transfer the world has ever seen.”