Crypto hater Bank of Russia supports Bitcoin adoption but for international settlements

A very big hypocritical image of the Bank of Russia came to light where they don’t want to see the adoption of Bitcoin & crypto in the country but they want to use cryptocurrencies for international payments to fight against Western financial sanctions.

Russia is a very big hub for the Cryptocurrency sector. The Bank of Russia, the central bank of this country, was never in support of cryptocurrency adoption and many times proposed ideas & frameworks to ban the adoption & circulation of cryptocurrencies in the country. Before Feb 2022, the Bank of Russia proposed a framework to impose a blanket ban on cryptocurrencies, just like China banned cryptocurrencies in 2021, but failed because of the Russia vs Ukraine war. 

Following the Russia vs Ukraine conflict, the majority of the Russian government agencies jumped to support crypto payment services to fight against the Western financial sanctions but the Bank of Russia never supported those ideas, instead proposed the use of traditional methods of payment e.g. use of Gold pegged tokens to trade globally, stablecoins.

In the recent week, many local media reports confirmed that the Bank of Russia authorities are now open to advocating the idea of cryptocurrency adoption for international payments & trade.

Last week, Elvira Nabiullina, who heads the Bank of Russia, said they’ll help speed up a law that backs using cryptocurrencies for international payments.

First Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank Olga Skorobogatova stated:

“We’ve already received three applications from businesses interested in trying this”.

Here we need to understand that the crypto-hate stance of the central bank has not changed yet. They openly said that they are still against crypto circulation and adoption at the national level. 

In short, they will use cryptocurrencies in payment at the international level but they’re not happy to see the adoption at the national level. 

It is worth it to note that the Russian finance ministry has been a long-term supporter of this innovative sector. Many times they opposed the idea of a crypto ban in the country.

In late March of this year, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov stated that he would meet with officials from the Bank of Russia to decide the scope of what could and could not be done with digital assets in the country.

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