By Michael Scott
Following the prevalence of mixed signals, the government seems to be quite ready to partner with the crypto industry
On Sunday, a Russian news outlet claimed that lawmakers in Russia have planned to conclude plans
for the creation of a cryptocurrency exchange owned by the state. Instead, they intend to create
regulations and rules for enterprises already in existence.
Russia Retreats from Plans to Have State-owned Crypto Exchange
Colin Wu of Wu Blockchain posted This story on Twitter early Monday morning. In this case,
he attached a Russian news outlet’s translation explaining that the nation’s new focus would be to
permit the building of crypto exchanges by private organizations.
The Ministry of Finance for the Russian Federation did not advocate for creating a single
federal crypto-exchange. Rather, the concept was to lawfully regulate the likelihood of developing
these kinds of sites by business. This information was provided by Ivan Chebeskov, the Director of the
Financial Policy Department.
Regulating Crypto Infrastructure Preferred to Monopolizing State-Run Exchange
Further, the head of the nation’s Lower House Committee on Financial Markets, Anatoly Aksakov,
claimed that rather than developing a single federal crypto exchange, there were plans to come up
with regulations to govern the creation and running of this kind of infrastructure. He further
claimed that cryptocurrency exchanges will be utilized to enhance payments across borders.
Nevertheless, he failed to stipulate the specific borders involved. He also admitted that encountering
new restrictions would be a probability.
Russia Changes Focus to Leveraging Cryptos for Global Settlements
Izvestia is the Russian outlet responsible for printing the story and claimed that the Central Bank is likely to regulate the platforms’ work. Besides, it claimed that the institution’s management of the
global settlements would occur within the nation’s regulatory framework. The news
was encouraging to a majority of private cryptocurrency operators within the Russian Federation.
Oleg Ogienko of BitRiver told Izvestia that the move would aid in averting the likelihood of sanctions
and infrastructural cyberattacks and avert the likelihood of monopolies in the market. BitRiver is a
Russian cryptocurrency mining operation. Ivan Gostev, GIS Mining’s Commercial Director, reinforced
this perspective by claiming that the move would enhance the development of more innovative and
competitive organizations.
The positive view by the private sector should not be surprising because, according to 2022
Global Corruptions Index, the nation occupied 137 rank out of 180 nations considered in the survey. This indicates the significance of embracing caution in all stately activities.
Russia Ends the Mixed Bag Game With Cryptocurrencies
For several years, authorities in Russia have been alternating between two opposite extremes concerning digital asset space. In early 2022, a complete ban on crypto payments was suggested by the
Bank of Russia, and after a month, a proposal for the regulation of Bitcoin was submitted by the
Ministry of Finance. Afterwards, a law seeking to ban the use of digital assets for payment was signed
by Vladimir Putin. However, the nation still investigated how stablecoins can be used to avoid
sanctions.
The news comes amid the continuing financial western-backed financial sanctions
against the nation following its Ukraine invasion. Despite the mixed signals history, today is a
major event in the government’s link to cryptocurrencies.
The anonymity of cryptocurrencies would enable Russia evade the sanctions imposed by the west.