Russia scraps plans for a national cryptocurrency exchange
The Russian government is no longer planning to launch a regulated national cryptocurrency exchange but rather wants to regulate multiple crypto trading platforms.
After introducing a plan to create a national crypto exchange in November 2022, Russian lawmakers have abandoned the idea, according to State Duma member Anatoly Aksakov. As previously reported, the local government was considering launching a unified crypto exchange as part of the Moscow Exchange.
Instead of setting up a unified crypto exchange, Russia now wants to set rules for creating and managing such platforms, Aksakov said, the local news agency Izvestia reported on May 29. Russia’s Ministry of Finance was reportedly among the authorities that didn’t support the plan for a national crypto exchange.
Aksakov, who leads the Duma’s financial markets committee, noted that crypto exchanges would allow Russian businesses to process cross-border transactions. Crypto exchanges will also enable local firms to avoid sanctions, which is likely to trigger restrictions against such platforms.
In response to such restrictions, Russia will continue to create new crypto platforms and organizations, Aksakov said, adding that the main thing would be to regulate that process.
The Russian central bank is likely to be the main regulatory authority supervising cryptocurrency exchanges, Aksakov suggested. The associated regulatory framework will be part of the bill on experimental legal regimes, he noted.
According to Bank of Russia deputy governor Alexey Guznov, it’s too early to talk about cryptocurrency exchanges in Russia in the classical sense of the word. More likely, such platforms would rather act as organizations that coordinate interaction between exporters and importers
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