The Central Bank of Russia approves Bitcoin, Ethereum, others for cross-border payments

Russia has been leaning towards cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum recently. Sanctions against the country since it began its evasion of Ukraine had piled up, and the government had begun turning to crypto to circumvent those sanctions. In its latest move, Russia’s central bank has moved to legalize crypto for cross-border payments.

Russia makes trade better

Over the past couple of months, the Russian government has been open about its stance on crypto. It had previously said the country was exploring ways it could use cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum to improve payments in the country. Now it has taken concrete steps to do so.

On September 22, the Central Bank of Russia announced that it had reached an agreement with the Ministry of Finance to allow crypto payments for cross-border use. What this means is that because crypto will not be a means of payment in the country, individuals and businesses will be able to use it to conduct transactions using crypto outside of Russia’s borders. It will also allow citizens to access and operate digital assets in the country.

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The bill contained ways for how individuals and businesses can get crypto, what they can do with said cryptocurrencies, and how the payments will be made. Russia also wants to keep pace with the rest of the world, according to Aleksey Moiseev, the finance minister.

Moiseev alluded to the fact that people outside of Russia can access and use digital assets. However, as such, the citizens of the country should have access to it. However, he called for regulation of cryptocurrencies so that they cannot be used by bad actors for malicious purposes. “Now people are opening crypto wallets outside of Russia. It is necessary that this can be done in Russia, that this is done by entities under the supervision of the Central Bank, which are required to comply with the requirements of the anti-money laundering legislation, and first of all, of course, to know his client”, said the Minister of Finance.

Accepting cryptocurrency as a means of cross-border payments will help the country avoid the many financial sanctions imposed on it. Russia also keeps a tight fist on crypto use by only allowing it outside the country and involving entities overseen by the central bank.

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