The Chairman of the Financial Markets Committee at the State Duma, Anatoly Aksakov, has said that the Russian government could create a crypto trading platform similar to the Moscow exchange. This platform would be overseen by the Bank of Russia and follow the same standards used at the Moscow Exchange.
Aksakov noted that while the Russian government was not against creating a platform facilitating crypto trading, it needed the platform to strictly comply with the regulations of the country’s central bank and have a similar operating model to the Moscow exchange.
The Bank of Russia has been mainly against crypto trading activities. At the beginning of the year, the country’s Prime Minister, Mikhail Mishustin, said that Russian domestic crypto investors owned over 10 trillion rubles worth of cryptocurrencies. Moreover, the number of crypto holders in the country was estimated to be around 7% of the country’s population.
Despite Russia being one of the largest crypto hubs globally, the country does not have its own crypto trading platform. Domestic crypto investors use platforms like Binance, Kraken, and FTX to buy Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
After Russia invaded Ukraine and Western countries started imposing sanctions against the country, there were several restrictions applied by crypto trading platforms to restrict crypto investments in compliance with the Western sanctions.
Aksakov opined that any crypto trading platform in Russia needed to be confined to the regulations of the Moscow Exchange and the country. He argued that this would allow the platform to work within the confines of the traditional finance sector. The platform will also work with the central bank to operate in the cryptocurrency space.
Crypto should not be used as a payment method
Crypto regulations in Russia have been a somewhat controversial topic. In June, Aksakov proposed a bill to ban using cryptocurrencies as a payment method. He said that banning the use of digital assets for payments would preserve the role of the ruble.
Aksakov’s views on regulations in the Russian crypto space come as even government organizations differ on whether to impose a blanket ban on crypto assets or endorse them. The Bank of Russia has previously called for a complete ban on all cryptocurrencies. However, the Ministry of Economy has said that regulating the industry was a better option than imposing a total ban.
