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In a video address to Navalny’s supporters on Wednesday, Volkov said the activists are keeping on with their work despite the recent wave of repression against Navalny and his allies, and are still in need of financial support. But the traditional financial system, which can be fully monitored by the state, is a bad intermediary on which to rely, Volkov said.

“If the authorities are pushing us out of fundraising via the banking system, we will be patiently teaching everyone to use cryptocurrencies and learn ourselves,” he said, adding:

“Cryptocurrencies are a real substitution for money; it’s not a toy. Their advantage is that they are not controlled by any central banks or governments. So it’s hard or even impossible for the governments to track them.”

Volkov’s bitcoin wallet dedicated to donations has received over 660 BTC (-5.63%) since 2016, and more than one full bitcoin since April, according to the blockchain data.

Alexei Navalny, a vocal opponent of Russia President Vladimir Putin, was poisoned last autumn by a chemical weapon, then arrested after he survived. After his arrest, a series of protests ensued and bitcoin donations to the network of Navalny’s allies surged.

In May, Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) was labeled an extremist organization by a Russian court. Although the process is still ongoing, the organization disbanded in advance to avoid exposing activists to potential criminal charges, should the initial ruling stand.

Even occasional supporters of Navalny might be subject to persecution: A new draft bill introduced in the Russian parliament in May suggests that anyone linked to an extremist organization won’t be able to run in any future elections.

Russian authorities have already taken a harsh stance against anyone backing Navalny. In May, a database of people who registered on a website dedicated to a protest rally in his support was stolen. Subsequently, participants were deanonymized and some lost their jobs.

In this situation, crypto can be a way for people to support Navalny’s cause but avoid being reprimanded, Volkov said in the video.

“Crypto is not an illegal version of a bank transfer; it’s a legal and safe replacement for cash. Cryptocurrencies, in fact, are very far away from criminal activities. They started as a mathematical game, but now even big companies and progressive entrepreneurs started using them,” he said, pointing to Elon Musk as an example.

Volkov also gave a brief explanation about anonymity in crypto and recommended that people new to cryptocurrencies start with buying a small amount on a big centralized exchange. In the description of a video, there is a bitcoin wallet address, a link to the major centralized exchange Binance and the number of Volkov’s account there for donations.

“If you’re not planning to use crypto, it won’t hurt to just have a wallet with some amount in it,” he says in the video. “You don’t have to buy a whole bitcoin. Try and see that it’s not hard at all. No need to afraid of cryptocurrencies; very soon, they will become a part of our life just as ordinary money is. And if we can be one step ahead of the government in this, we should use this chance.”

The company’s unaudited financials for Q1 report a net income of $200,000 from $29.6 million in gross profit. Additionally, Canaan reported that it had sold some 2 terahashes worth of mining equipment in the first quarter of the year, more than doubling the machines they sold in Q4 of 2020 when COVID-chocked supply lines undermined Canaan’s bottomline.

The modest haul was enough to send shares of the typically financially beleaguered firm up nearly 12% at press time.

Canaan CEO Nangeng Zhang said the company’s financial turnaround was “driven by the bitcoin price rally” and higher demand from customers.

“During the period we improved our mining machine production yields and secured sufficient capacity for future production,” Zhang said. “We have obtained a large number of pre-orders from long-term clients both at home and abroad,”

Canaan noted in its report that its contract liabilities for hardware, now worth $184 million, have nearly tripled since the end of last year.

Notably, 78% percent of the orders underpinning these contracts are coming from outside China, Canaan noted. In prior years, this percentage point has been in the single digits.

“Our revenues generated from overseas markets increased to 78.4% of our total net revenues in the first quarter of 2021 compared to 4.9% in the same period of 2020. Looking ahead, we plan to continue investing in those areas that will help to further develop both our core bitcoin mining machine business and other business initiatives in order to sustain our growth trajectory in 2021 and beyond,” Canaan CFO Tong He said.

Canaan’s influx of overseas orders corresponds with a shift in bitcoin’s mining landscape as the Chinese government cracks down on coal-fire mines, leading miners to look elsewhere to host their operations.

In North America, mining firms are scaling aggressively and taking measures to address bitcoin’s perceived energy appetite.

According to data provider Skew, the six-month put-call skew, which measures the relative expensiveness of puts and calls, crossed above zero on May 17, indicating a bias for puts.

The metric has remained positive ever since, and was hovering at 4% at press time. That’s the longest stretch above zero in at least a year.

“Longer-term bitcoin options [skew] are seeing sustained prints above zero for the first time this year, indicating demand for puts,” Fredrick Collins, an options trader and researcher at Glassnode, tweeted Monday. “Before this, bitcoin was the only major asset besides gold and Japanese yen to consistently trade with a more expensive upside.”

A call option gives the purchaser the right, but not the obligation, to buy the underlying asset at a predetermined price on or before a specific date. A put buyer gets the right to sell.

While bitcoin had several price pullbacks in the 10 months to April 2021, the six-month put-call skew remained entrenched in negative territory in a sign market participants were confident the declines would be short-lived and lead to more substantial rallies. They were right and the cryptocurrency rose to record highs after every pullback.

This time, however, investors appear worried about an extended sell-off and see low probability of a V-shaped recovery, as evidenced by the persistent positive six-month put-call skew.

Bitcoin tanked from $58,000 to nearly $30,000 in the eight days to May 19 on concerns regarding the negative environmental impact of bitcoin mining and China’s regulatory crackdown.

Since then, the cryptocurrency has charted a narrowing price range between $30,000 and $40,000. Some technical analysts foresee a short-term price bounce. That’s not reflected in the options market. The one-week, one-month and three-month put-call skews are signaling a put bias with positive prints.

Market participants could be buying puts against a long position in the spot or futures market, or taking a plain long put position to profit from a potential downside move.

Also read: Bitcoin Eyes Second-Biggest Monthly Drop on Record

Bitcoin was up 8.8%, over the past 24 hours having clawed back more than $3,000 from May 31 lows near $34,200. At press time the price was around $37,200. The move marks bitcoin’s biggest daily gain in a week.

Ether surged 15% over the previous 24 hours, also the most in a week, extending the rally from May 23 lows to find a footing above $2,670.

“We’ve seen our institutional clients express nothing but increased interest in strengthening their long-term positions during this time,” said Gunnar Jaev, COO at First Digital Trust, a digital-asset trust and custodian. “The movement is bullish.”

The price increases came amid fresh reports that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued a circular on Monday stating commercial banks under its purview cannot cite the reserve bank’s 2018 ban.

That ban initially denied customers involved in digital assets access to traditional banking services. The ban was then quashed by the country’s supreme court last year.

Prices have since begun to cool, with intraday resistance around $38,000 for bitcoin and $2,730 for ether.

Other notable cryptos in the top 10 by market capitalization have also risen between 3% and 13% over the last 24 hours. XRP, Uniswap, and Dogecoin clocked the most gains.

See also: RBI Says Banks Can’t Quote 2018 Circular to Restrict Crypto Transactions