Russia is also reportedly developing stablecoins tied to the yuan and a basket of BRICS currencies.
However, despite Russia’s plans, the asset class, particularly cryptocurrencies, remains heavily scrutinized in the country.
Oleg Ogienko, BitRiver’s General Director for Communications, notes that stablecoins, due to their complex legal nature, pose integration, convertibility, liquidity, and anchoring issues.
“There is a perspective within Russian legislation that views stablecoins as digital financial assets due to the existence of an issuing center and an obligated party,” Ogienko added.
Yaroslav Shitsle, head of the “Resolution of IT & IP Disputes” practice at Rustam Kurmaev and Partners, points out that cryptocurrency regulation in Russia is governed by several key statutes, with the principal one being Law 259-FZ ‘On Digital Financial Assets.’
This law provides a legal framework for the issuance and circulation of digital financial assets but lacks specific provisions governing the operation of cryptocurrency exchanges.
He stated:
“As a result, there currently is no clear and cohesive legal framework for the establishment and functioning of crypto exchanges.”
Mikhail Uspensky, a member of the State Duma’s expert council on legislative regulation of cryptocurrencies, mentions that the only existing regulation for potential crypto exchanges in Russia is the experimental legal regime (EPR) .
This regime will initially be tested with a limited group of users, including large exporters and importers, but is unlikely to grant unrestricted access to small and medium enterprises or individuals during the initial phase.
According to the expert, it is unlikely that small and medium enterprises, or individuals, will be granted unrestricted access during the initial phase of the new platform.
He emphasized:
“It is crucial to note once again that the future experiment’s framework is entirely under the regulator’s control.”
Risks and Limited Appeal May Hinder Russia’s New Crypto Exchanges
Nikita Vassev, founder of TerraCrypto , suggests that only those without alternatives will turn to such an exchange.
He argues that those who have other options are unlikely to abandon well-established trading platforms, which have been refined over the years by top developers, for domestic ones.
Vassev said:
“The same holds true for stablecoins. They will only be used by those who have no other choice. The only scenario in which a market participant would opt for a domestic platform is out of sheer necessity.”
Experts warned that the project carries significant risks.
Blockchain is a relatively transparent entity, and in case of confidentiality breaches, information about transactions may get into sanctions lists, and transactions with crypto assets purchased on such domestic exchanges will be blocked, Uspensky pointed out.
He concluded:
“Simply put, if information leaks into the public domain that cryptocurrency was purchased on a Russian exchange, then with the help of special technical means it will be easy to track and mark absolutely all transactions as suspicious, significantly spoiling the lives of not only the participants in the transactions, but also the future owners of digital currency, who are completely uninvolved with Russia.”
The centralized nature will kill any trust, the expert believes.
