The Central Bank of Russia has released their view on cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. We have earlier argued that Russia may outlaw the use of Bitcoin due to its strict monetary policy. It seems our presumption was correct as the press release from the Central Bank of Russia is hostile against the use of Bitcoin and other digital currencies.
A Russian source has told us that the Central Bank’s new stance on virtual currencies means that they have banned the use of it, affecting both their partners and customers. This will make it hard to operate both Bitcoin-exchanges and Bitcoin-businesses in Russia.
The press release say:
… These operations are speculative in nature, carried out on so called virtual exchanges and with a high risk of losses.
The Bank of Russia warns citizens and legal entities, primarily credit institutions and non-credit financial institutions, from using digital currencies in exchange for products and services, or converting them into rubles and foreign currencies.
According to article 27 of the Federal Law “On the Central Bank of the Russian Federation (Bank of Russia)” issued in the Russian Federation monetary surrogates prohibited.
The Bank of Russia has warned that Russian legal entities providing services for exchanges of cryptocurrencies in rubles and/or foreign currencies, as well as for services and products, will be considered possibly involved in the implementation of suspicious transactions…
View the full press release here in Russian.
Russian Central Bank bans #Bitcoin , tells it violates AML legislation http://t.co/W95FyK7KcN (Russian PR). @jonmatonis @dgwbirch
— Daniel Gusev (@dngusev) January 28, 2014
What do you think will happen with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in the Russian Federation? Post your comment below.
Comment from elitecougar based in Russia:
These Russian news… Right after the head of the largest Russian Bank (Sberbank) and ex-Minister of Finance urged our legislators not to tighten the rules about innovative Cryptocurrencies…
CCN may be the first one to comment on the Bitcoin fate in Russia… I don’t see ANY reaction at all from the Russian news outlets…
Maybe they haven’t found the press release yet…
However, I don’t want them to report on that… All they can do is to tell once again how Bitcoin is used in drug dealership and money laundering and terrorism… …and they may call this step “Russia doing the right thing”…