Russia backtracks from plan to create national crypto exchange

Russia is no longer moving forward with its plans to create a national crypto exchange. Instead, it will focus on formulating rules that will allow private companies to establish such exchanges.

The head of the State Duma committee on the financial market, Anatoly Aksakov, disclosed this to local media Izvestiya on May 29. According to Aksakov, the exchanges would be regulated by local regulations as they could be used to bypass sanctions.

The report suggested that the exchanges would be regulated by the Russian Central Bank, which would introduce new regulations for their operations before the end of the year.

In November 2022, CryptoSlate reported that Russian lawmakers were working on a draft amendment bill allowing the country to launch a national crypto exchange.

Russia’s crypto stakeholders support the decision

Several crypto stakeholders within the country believe this approach would benefit all parties.

The Director for Government Relations at BitRiver, Oleg Ogienko, highlighted the risks attached to a single national crypto exchange. According to him, multiple players in the industry would limit the risks of sanctions, cyber-attacks, and abuse by a dominant market player.

Ogienko added that access to these exchanges would be regulated to protect traders, and new regulations would be formed for foreign firms looking to operate within Russia. These laws would protect the security of these platforms and their Russian users’ information.

The commercial director at GIS Mining, Ivan Gostev, also said regulation of private entities would enable competitive development and innovation within the industry. Gostev also corroborated Ogienko’s view on regulating these platforms to protect users.

The founder of Anderida Financial Group, Alexei Tarapovsky, corroborated the sentiments. Tarapovsky noted that the crypto exchanges could help Russian companies to complete international transactions using crypto following the sanctions from the U.S. and other Western countries.

Russia’s Ministry of Finance opposed the national crypto exchange

Russia’s decision to launch a federal crypto exchange had met internal opposition from the Ministry of Finance.

The director of financial policy at the Ministry, Ivan Chebeskov, explained that the ministry preferred regulating businesses operating these exchanges and digital assets, adding that the department reached a compromise with the central bank to bring crypto mining activities under regulation and allow crypto use in international payments.