Central Bank of Russia Welcomes Crypto Payment

• A green flag may be given to crypto payments for international trading.
• The first deputy of CBR thinks ‘usage within the country involves a high-risk factor’.

Ksenia Yudaeva, First Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Russia, made a statement in a press conference saying that Russia is not opposing the use of crypto in international trading, and Ivan Chebeskov, head of the Russian financial policy department also recently quoted the discussion about the employment of digital currencies for oversea settlement is in an active phase.

The recent stand change of Russia regarding cryptocurrency is seen as the impact of western sanctions made on the country. The prohibition by other countries on international trade has made Putin’s nation accept digital assets, as it may be flavourful to them for transacting to men in the war zone.

But when the question arises about usage within the country, they are in the early stages, the digitalization of Ruble and transfer between wallets have been tested only at the start of the current year. 

Yudaeva states:

“We still believe that the active use of cryptocurrency within the country, especially within Russia’s financial infrastructure, creates great risks for citizens and users. We believe that in our country those risks could be reasonably large” 

Chronology of Events

The status of cryptocurrency and the digital market have been in constant evolvement in Russia. Last October, Vladimir Putin said that it is ‘too early’ to use crypto in trading. In Jan 2022, the country implemented a blanket ban on crypto and within Feb, the Government released plans with tight regulation. And lastly, the digitalization of the Ruble has been speeding up in recent weeks.

The previous hesitation on crypto was backed by reasons such as high volatile nature, Mining problems like high computation, and enormous power usage.