A misunderstanding has been circulating on X in recent days. No, Russia has not banned, nor does it intend to ban, bitcoin.
Lost in translation
The Russian Parliament has surprised bitcoiners on edge in recent days due to the arrest of the creators of the Samourai wallet.
Interfax reported a few days ago a draft law stipulating that “the organization of traffic [du bitcoin] would be banned from September.”
The text defines the organization of the circulation of bitcoin as follows: “Provision of services on Russian territory that facilitate transactions [de bitcoins] from one person to another if they use Russian telecommunications infrastructure. »
It was enough to provoke an outcry. A definition with such a broad scope could easily be interpreted as a ban on wallets. Indeed, the latter necessarily use telecommunications infrastructures.
The deputy Anton Gorelkin however clarified things following the outcry:
“It is surprising that respected magazines wrote that 'deputies want to ban the circulation of cryptocurrencies in Russia'. If this were the case, why does this same law introduce mechanisms to identify transactions affiliated with criminal activities?
Obviously that [le bitcoin] is not prohibited. Whate we prohibit is the creation of exchanges (like Coinbase or Binance) outside the legal regime as well as payment services. »
For the MP, the emergence of a supervised infrastructure is a geopolitical necessity. This is to prevent Russian bitcoin exchanges and miners from falling under Western sanctions. This bill would therefore rather be “a protectionist measure”.
“It is not impossible that we raise this restriction in the future. Regardless, nothing has changed. Nobody prohibits the use of foreign exchanges. »
Chairman of the Duma Financial Markets Committee Anatoly Askakov declared for his part:
“Digital assets issued in Russia [Bitcoin Mining ?] and digital rubles [CBDC] will be authorized. The need for a ban is due to the fact that cryptocurrencies are quasi-currencies that can replace the ruble within Russian borders. However, only the ruble fulfills the mission of unit of account. This is why we are making this decision. »
In other words, goodbye to services like BTCPay which facilitate bitcoin payments for merchants. However, it remains legal to exchange bitcoins peer-to-peer.
Conversely, remember that Russian President Vladimir Putin gave the green light to the launch of a digital ruble pilot program (CBDC) last summer. Vice President of the Bank of Russia Olga Skorobogatova expects the digital ruble to materialize in 2025.
Despite the FUD, bitcoin is actually on the rise. Minors are welcomed with open arms in Siberia. Russia is even on the verge of overtaking China with more than 12% of the global hashrate.
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