Russia Shifts Attention to Set Crypto Regulations in Lieu Exchange

Russia has no plans to operate a state-run cryptocurrency exchange or any state-sponsored crypto venture in the country. Earlier, It was expected that Russia would introduce its own crypto exchange. However, now it has been confirmed that it has dropped plans for any such ventures. Instead, it is focusing on regulating existing crypto enterprises.

Chinese reporter, Colin Wu, who reports on cryptocurrencies and blockchain, posted the update on Twitter citing Russian news outlet Izvestia. The news outlet Wu sourced noted that Russia would now focus on allowing private players in the crypto sector to set up crypto exchanges.

In his tweet on Monday, May 29, Colin on his Twitter handle, Wu Blockchain, asserted that the lawmakers in Russia had clarified their intentions for not moving ahead with their plans of creating a crypto trading platform. Instead, the focus would be on developing rules for private companies and letting them set up crypto trading platforms.

The Central Bank of the Russian Federation would be supervising such firms. It also noted the bank is expected to bring “new operating regulations” before this year’s end. Along with the tweet, Colin Wu linked an English translation of news outlets reported originally in Russian.

The Russian news outlet reported that the Russian central bank is likely to regulate the platforms. Also, it will manage the cross-border payment settlements as per the country’s regulations.

Director of the Russian Federation’s Financial Policy, Department of the Ministry of Finance, Ivan Chebeskov, reportedly stated that the ministry did not support establishing a “national crypto exchange.” Legally regulating those entities, he added, would now be in the focus.

Head of the financial markets lower house committee in Russia, Anatoly Aksakov, said that the establishment of crypto regulations was planned in place of “creating one national crypto exchange.”

This step would work better for the “establishment and operation of such infrastructure.” He added that international crypto payments would be facilitated through the crypto exchanges, and also admitted that they face several new restrictions.

Russia is one of the countries which has an unclear stance on cryptocurrencies. However, it has relatively softer and simple regulations for the burgeoning asset class. Despite calls for an outright ban in the region by the central bank, the lawmakers in the country did not ban crypto.

Russia’s relationship with crypto assets is like the game of Hide-and-Seek. President Vladimir Putin reportedly signed a law banning crypto payments in the region. Notably, the move did not affect crypto transactions in the region. Instead, it has reportedly used crypto to make Billions of dollars worth of transactions in order to evade the sanctions imposed by Western countries in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine war.