Almost half of retail investors in Russia believe that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) are a hedging nugget associated with stable income, according to a new survey.

Financial publication Investing.com has polled ane,000 Russian retail investors to find out the near requested types of alternative investments.

According to the survey, as many equally 46% of respondents viewed cryptocurrencies equally a potential defensive asset allowing them to hedge against fiscal risks at times of an economic crisis.

Russian retail investors favored crypto more than existent estate, while but 37% of respondents investing in alternative avails considered buying real estate an effective investment musical instrument.

Real manor has been historically the top hedging nugget in Russian federation, according to Anastasia Kosheleva, head of Investing.com'due south Russian division. She noted that cryptocurrencies have emerged as the biggest investment trend in 2022, as they outstripped other traditional assets including foreign commutation currencies and stocks.

According to a report by big data platform Brand Analytics, Bitcoin was the near popular cryptocurrency in Russia in October, outpacing coins such as Tether (USDT) and Litecoin (LTC) in terms of social media mentions.

Cryptocurrencies have been growing increasingly popular amidst Russian investors in contempo years, with 77% of Russian investors preferring Bitcoin to golden in a survey concluding twelvemonth.

Last week, the Bank of Russia published a financial stability report, noting the country's growing role in the global $2.8-trillion cryptocurrency market. The primal bank mentioned that Russian federation ranks third in the world in terms of the national BTC hash rate and is i of the biggest users of the Binance cryptocurrency substitution.

Related: Inflationary winds from effectually the world spell a sea alter for Bitcoin

Amid growing inflation and the ongoing COVID-nineteen pandemic, global investors have been increasingly looking at cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin as a hedge confronting financial risk.

According to Damien Courvalin, head of energy research at Goldman Sachs, investors have been increasingly hedging against inflation using crypto in addition to traditional assets such as gold. "Just like we debate that argent is the poor homo'due south gold, golden is maybe becoming the poor man's crypto," he said in mid-November.

Previously, Pendal Grouping caput of culling duration strategies Vimal Gor argued that cryptocurrencies should be added to new culling defensive portfolios as regime bonds accept lost their value as a hedge against adventure.