Russia has not been able to maintain a stern stance on crypto of late. On days it seems like the government there is more inclined towards the anti side of the spectrum. But at other times, they manage to flash the brighter side of the painted picture by talking about it.
Back in January, for instance, the central bank had proposed an outright ban on crypto trading, mining, and usage.
However, at the beginning of February, it was announced that the nation would treat crypto assets like currencies.
Towards the end of March, it was brought to light that Russia was considering to sell oil and gas for Bitcoin to “friendly” countries such as China and Turkey.
While just a day back, however, Russia’s central bank rejected a proposal to use crypto to evade sanctions.
Russia back to square one on crypto
Just a few hours back the Russian government made it clear that it fully supported the stance of the central bank with respect to crypto. It outrightly claimed that cryptos cannot be considered legal tender in the country.
In the State Duma, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, said
“We are against the recognition of cryptocurrency as a means of payment or money.”
What is interesting is that Russians collectively hold more than 10 trillion rubles ($130 billion) in cryptos like Bitcoin (BTC). The PM claimed so at the annual report presentation of the Russian government on Thursday. Without mentioning the source for this figure, the Prime Minister said that the amount is based on “various estimates.”
He stated,
“We are well aware that we have more than 10 million young people having opened crypto wallets so far on which they have transferred significant amounts of money, which exceeds 10 trillion rubles.”
Nonetheless, he asserted that mining was a subject that was still open for discussion. Elaborating on the same, he added,
“We also think that in order to stimulate investment, primarily in fixed capital, we can discuss mining issues, which includes the creation of data centers and related infrastructure.”
Interestingly, earlier this week, a finance ministry official had also hinted that “home-based crypto mining” would not be banned in Russia.
The Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak is seemingly on the same page. He said last month that legalizing cryptocurrency mining and introducing legislation to make it a business activity in Russia would make more sense.