Historically opposed to the idea of using crypto as a payment method, the Bank of Russia has reportedly agreed to allow cross-border payments in crypto due to geopolitical changes.


The Bank of Russia, the country’s central bank, has reportedly admitted that cross-border payments in crypto are inevitable in the current geopolitical conditions. 

The Russian central bank has been rethinking the approach to regulating crypto and agreed with the finance ministry to allow crypto for cross-border payments, the local news agency TASS reported on Monday. 

Deputy minister Alexei Moiseev reportedly said that the Bank of Russia and also the finance ministry expect to let cross-border payments in crypto before long. 

Moiseev made public the importance of enabling native crypto services in Russia, noting that many Russians rely on foreign platforms to open a crypto wallet. “It is important to try and do this in Russia, involving entities supervised by the financial organization, that area unit obligated to fits Anti-Money washing and grasp Your client requirements,” the official stated. 

Russian lawmakers are traditionally against the thought of using cryptocurrencies as a payment method. In 2020, Russia adopted a significant crypto law, “On Digital financial Assets,” that officially prohibited the use of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) for payment functions. The Bank of Russia has been skeptical regarding the thought of cryptocurrency payments because it wished to safeguard the Russian ruble because the solely legal tender in the country. 

The idea of crypto payments for national trades in Russia surfaced in late 2021. Then, Russian President solon said it absolutely was “still premature” to use crypto for trades of energy resources like oil and gas. 

The situation has apparently changed amid Western economic sanctions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In May, the Minister of industry and Trade declared that Russia would allow crypto payments “sooner or later.” Bank of Russia governor Elvira Nabiullina conjointly later advised that crypto will be used for cross-border payments, however providing crypto doesn’t get into Russia’s domestic financial set-up.

( Helen Partz, Cointelegraph, 2022 )