Summary
- Bitcoin became a topic at the BRICS summit this year, with Russia as a focus.
- The 16th BRICS summit started on October 22 and will end tomorrow.
The 16th BRICS summit debuted yesterday, October 22, and it seems that Bitcoin became a notable subject at the meetings.
According to the latest reports revealed by the head of digital assets research at VanEck, Matthew Sigel, top lawmakers are pushing the idea that Russian miners could sell their Bitcoin to international buyers, who would use BTC and crypto to pay for imports.
In other words, this would be a way to bypass Western sanctions, according to him.
Sanctions, Bitcoin, and Geopolitics
The BRICS summit debuted in Kazan, Russia, and crypto is on the table, according to official notes from Bloomberg.
Russia has been hit by sanctions, but crypto could provide an alternative way to the traditional financial systems that rely on the US dollar and the banks.
Richard Wolff, a US economist and professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, addressed the situation and said that the BRICS coalition is gaining ground over the US, economically speaking as well.
Also, Sigel noted that Russia’s BitRiver and Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) announced a partnership for a BRICS-wide Bitcoin mining initiative.
Sigel continued and highlighted parts of a Bloomberg article, stating that the 9 members of BRICS account for 26% of the world’s population and 45% of the GDP vs the G7 10% of the world’s population and 44% of the GDP.
G7, the Group of Seven, is an intergovernmental political and economic forum consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.
It will be interesting to watch if the BRICS summit can impact Bitcoin’s price, especially since we’re also ahead of the US elections scheduled for November 5.