Is the Kremlin turning its back on cryptos?

Digital financial assets (DFA) are the alternative found by Russia to circumvent Western sanctions. Last December, Sberbank was rightly congratulating itself on the success of its first gold-backed DFA issue. A dynamic that the Kremlin wants to maintain and support.

DFAs, an option for crypto savings?

Since coming under Western sanctions, Russia has explored several solutions to remain financially viable. She found one she’s been betting on ever since: digital financial assets (DFAs).

According to the Kremlin, these would be much more relevant than cryptos because they benefit from more rigorous regulation. It is for this reason, among others, that the State wants to promote them among the population of the middle class in particular.

This is a way for the Russian government to avoid a crypto rush. This, in a context of falling volume of savings held in foreign currencies. And Ivan Chebeskovan official of the Russian Ministry of Finance, is categorical about this.

“We absolutely do not want citizens’ savings to be directed to digital currencies”he said at the conference. Finance of the future: Challenges and Opportunities, dealing with the blockchain.

The official explained the reasons for this displayed position. According to him, cryptos are too risky financial instruments, relevant only for the wealthiest Russians.

As a result, they would be fundamentally unsuited to the needs of middle-class citizens who wish to save. This, especially since even the most stable of them (stablecoins) do not encourage an accumulation of interest for users.

The choice of the Russian government is therefore complete. The fact remains that a significant share of Russian citizens hold cryptos. Anatoly Popov, a senior Sberbank official, puts them at about 13 million people, or about 9% of the population. Of this total, at least one million users are said to be active.

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