The Ukraine central bank, amid an escalating war, is clamping down on digital money transfers in the country. This measure was enforced as the nation declared martial law. In its official statement, the National Bank of Ukraine noted, “banks – issuers of electronic money to suspend the issuance of electronic money, replenishment of electronic wallets with electronic money, and distribution of electronic money.”

Ukraine bans transfers of electronic cash. 

Accordingly, this could be referring to fiat money maintained in digital accounts held in payment systems such as Paypal. While the country imposes new monetary restrictions in light of geopolitical turmoil, Ukrainians are now looking to crypto. Consequently, a well-known Ukrainian crypto exchange, Kuna, is showing that buyers are shelling cash for Tether’s USDT stablecoin, which is pegged to the price of the U.S. dollar.

Michael Chobanian, the founder of the crypto exchange Kuna, said, “We don’t trust the government. We don’t trust the banking system. We don’t trust the local currency. The majority of people have nothing else to choose apart from crypto.”

Ukrainian hryvnia falls to an all-time low.

While the Russian ruble suffered noticeably more, the Ukrainian hryvnia also fell, targeting 30 per dollar to hit a new all-time low. Ukraine, which just this month finally ratified a law legalizing cryptocurrency after much to-and-fro between lawmakers, unsurprisingly saw interest in alternatives snap higher. As per the CoinGecko data, the fervor has already begun to subside after the initial rush, this coinciding with stabilizing fiat rates versus the U.S. dollar and other major currencies. At the time of writing, BTC/USD traded at $38,300 on Bitstamp, while Kuna’s USD pair was over $40,000. Stablecoin Tether, on the other hand, was at $37,800 per bitcoin.