The central bank of Russia seems have changed its stance on crypto with its latest decision to issue a crypto license to Sberbank.
Today is the 23rd day of the Russia vs Ukraine war, in which Ukraine faced huge losses in almost everything ( human life, buildings, economy, reputation, etc). In this war situation, Russia also faced a huge economic downturn because of financial sanctions on the Russian government. In these situations, few experts claimed that Russia will try to use crypto to bypass such financial Sanctions. On the other hand, the Central Bank of Russia clearly stated that the stance of the Bank on crypto is still the same and will always try to stop the circulation of crypto in the Russian Federation.
Recently the Bank of Russia, Central Bank of Russia, issued its license to the leading bank Sberbank to operate its crypto-related services like issuance of digital currency and also exchange of digital assets.
In 2020 Sberbank was working on its SberCoin (probably a stablecoin) in collaboration with JPMorgan. For a long time, Sberbank was waiting to get a license to operate its digital assets-related services but bitter stances of the Central Bank and situations never forced the Central Bank to issue a license for Sberbank.
Recently Sberbank stopped its operations from its European subsidiaries because the bank found huge funds outflow from the bank and that was hinting toward some negative results for Bank and account holders.
“abnormal cash outflows and threats to the safety of employees and branches.”
Few reports claimed that SberBank may use digital assets based operations to bypass the financial Sanctions to some degree.
New speculation on Russia to use crypto
In the very starting days of the Ukraine vs Russia war, financial sanctions on Russia initiated speculation among the experts to discuss the possibilities of Russia to bypass sanctions. However, at that time the Central Bank clearly stated that the Central Bank is still against the crypto industry.
But under such a high tension critical situation between Ukraine & Russia, the license to Sberbank is hinting that the Central Bank of Russia is now in favour of crypto adoption. However, it will be too early to comment on such speculation because no official statement came on this matter by the Central Bank.
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