Cross-border crypto settlements receive the green signal from the Bank of Russia

The Bank of Russia, which is the country’s central bank, has admitted that cross-border crypto transfers are almost impossible to avoid. At the moment, the geopolitical climate in Russia has been under a lot of stress.

According to other local news outlets, the central bank has adopted a different approach when it comes to regulating the cryptocurrency industry.

The Bank of Russia aims to work with the Ministry of Finance to legalize it for international payments.

Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseev had said that the central bank must join forces with the finance ministry for the entire process to happen in a seamless manner.

After the collaboration, cross-border payments will be made easily. Alexei Moiseev also highlighted the importance of allowing local crypto services to work in Russia.

Many Russians reportedly rely on these foreign platforms to open a digital asset wallet.

He mentioned,

It is necessary to do this in Russia, and involves entities supervised by the central bank, which are obliged to comply with anti-money laundering and Know Your Customer requirements.

Changed attitude towards cryptocurrency

It is well known that Russian lawmakers have not exactly embraced the idea of ​​digital assets as a payment method.

Russia passed a major crypto law, “On Digital Financial Assets”, which had officially banned the use of cryptos such as Bitcoin (BTC) for cross-border payment purposes.

The Bank of Russia has been leery of the idea of ​​digital asset payments.

The reason has been that Russia wanted to secure the Russian ruble as the only legal tender in the country.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has not been on board with the idea of ​​using crypto to trade energy resources such as oil and gas because it was “still too early”.

After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, there has been a change in these situations due to the economic sanctions imposed by the West.

Russia’s domestic financial system should not be affected

Bank of Russia Governor Elvira Nabiullina also later mentioned that crypto can be used cross-border.

The biggest concern that remains with the government of Russia is what if crypto enters Russia’s domestic financial system.

Alexei Moiseev, the Deputy Minister of Finance has also reassessed the approach to regulating the cryptocurrency industry as the situation appears to have changed.

Moiseev also added that the planned infrastructure has been “too rigid” for the use of cryptocurrencies in cross-border settlements. There is a need to legalize the same as he is also of the same opinion.

The situation that has seen a change is due to the Western economic sanctions that followed the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

A few months back, the Ministry of Industry and Trade had declared that Russia would legalize crypto payments “sooner or later”.

Featured image from News18, chart from TradingView.com