Russia to use Cryptocurrency in Off-Border payments!

In a significant legislative move, Russia passed two crypto bills on Tuesday. After their attack on Ukraine, Russia has been cut off from the global payments network. This is affecting their economy. Keeping a full crypto ban domestically, they wish to use crypto payments internationally. Let’s explore how these two bills can help Russia to save their economy.

Crypto for International Trades

In the first three readings, the Russian parliament has passed two crypto bills. The first one will allow Russia to utilize crypto as payment method for international trades. This law would enable the Central bank of Russia to build a pilot project that will explore ways to use cryptocurrency in cross-border transactions. 

The Western sanctions have hampered Russian international transactions. They are experiencing business interruptions in global trading with their key partners like China, UAE and India. Russia faces significant delays in payments coming from international markets. Even though Russia has tried to trade with currencies of its partners, they conduct most payments in either Dollar or Euro to go through the international SWIFT system. This risks secondary sanctions from western regulators on banks in partner countries.

According to the Central bank of Russia, the delay in payments is causing great damage to the economy as this has already caused an 8% decline in Russian import. Russia hopes use of cryptos would help them easily buy the banned goods as cryptocurrency is hard to track. And the use of cryptos for cross border trades will allow certain industries to bypass the regulations. Russia is not the first country to take such steps. Afraid of western regulators, Venezuela has already adopted this path.

Crypto Mining Regulations

The second bill that passed in the lower house of the Russian government will legalize cryptocurrency mining in the country. This bill will mandate the Bank of Russia and the government to mandate regulations for crypto mining. This will be monitored and administered by a federal entity. The aim behind all this is to make crypto mining legal in the country and facilitate tax payments as this will ensure declaration of income.

Looking Ahead

The lower house of the Russian parliament has already passed these bills and will soon send them to the upper house for voting. Once the upper house passes them, they will send them to the President for final approval. This bill also aims to reduce legal risks. They will sell the mined crypto without using Russian information infrastructure. This will exempt these transactions from currency regulations. The bills once approved will take effect from 1st of September, 2024. Western regulators have already imposed sanctions on Russia and these bills will definitely add more bitterness to the whole scenario. One must not forget that even though Russia is working to implement these two crypto bills, they still completely ban the use of cryptocurrency for domestic trades.