BRICS Summit Kicks Off As Lawmakers Discuss Using Bitcoin (BTC) To Evade US Sanctions: Report

Russian officials are reportedly discussing how to use Bitcoin (BTC) to conduct international trade outside the purview of the US dollar system.

According to a Bloomberg report shared by VanEck’s head of digital assets Matthew Sigel, top lawmakers are pushing the idea that Russian mining firms could sell their BTC to international buyers, who would then use the coins to pay for imports and effectively bypass sanctions.

Russia has already made several moves this year to sanctions-proof its economy, including permitting the use of cryptocurrency for international trade, and working on the launch of its own crypto exchanges and stablecoins.

At a BRICS Business Forum held last week, Russian crypto-mining firm BitRiver says it discussed a partnership with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), the country’s sovereign wealth fund.

The partnership includes using BitRiver’s data centers to increase Russia’s share in the artificial intelligence (AI) economy and global computing power market and to build data centers in BRICS countries.

Says Igor Runets, owner and CEO of BitRiver,

“Mining is not just the foundation for the digital economy. If Russia catches up with the United States in such a fundamental branch of the digital economy as mining, this means that our country cannot be ignored. This is further economic growth, liquidity for settlements with our partners, the foundation for the development of artificial intelligence, the creation of highly skilled jobs throughout the country.

Together with the Russian Direct Investment Fund, we will focus on creating an infrastructure base based on mining – building data centers and connecting them to the necessary capacities so that it is possible to deploy and implement projects related to AI, and thus develop this area on a national scale.”

BRICS was originally established as Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, but recently welcomed Iran, Egypt Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates, and has received requests from other countries to join.

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Featured Image: Shutterstock/Tithi Luadthong