The Russian ruble dived around 29% against the dollar on Monday morning as markets assessed the impact of sanctions on Russia.
The ruble was trading as low as $119 per dollar as offshore trading began in the morning, from 84 per dollar the previous day, according to Factset data.
The Russia-Ukraine crisis shows no sign of abating.
Russian President Vladimir Putin put his country's nuclear deterrence forces on high alert on Sunday after days of air, sea and land assault on Ukraine.
Russia continues to advance into Ukraine, but the country retains control of its capital and second biggest city. Russian military vehicles entered Kharkiv on Sunday with reports of fighting and residents being warned to stay in shelters.
To me, it doesn’t really feel like we’re looking at or at least we’re going to see the bottom in the ruble here. I think there still is plenty more room for weakness to come.
Last week, President Joe Biden responded to Moscow's unprovoked attack on Ukraine by announcing several rounds of sanctions on Russian banks, the country's debt and the Foreign Minister.
Over the weekend, the U.S., European allies and Canada agreed to cut off key Russian banks from the interbank messaging system, SWIFT, which connects more than 11,000 banks and financial institutions in over 200 countries and territories.
Bipan Rai, senior macro strategist at CIBC Capital Markets, told CNBC on Monday that he expects a steep drop in the Russian currency.
Russia's central bank would probably have to raise interest rates very aggressively if the Russian currency lost all its value outside of the country.
They are going to do it with governments that are friendly to them. He said that the move to sell gold appears to be decreasing.
It doesn't feel like we're looking at the bottom in the ruble. Rai told CNBC that there was still more room for weakness.
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