The government of Russia has given up on its plans to create a national cryptocurrency exchange and will direct its focus elsewhere. Specifically, Russian authorities plan to set up a regulatory infrastructure that would keep a close eye on the development and operations of the country’s crypto trading platforms.

This way, the authorities want to minimise the risk of receiving further sanctions while also promoting competition in the crypto market. Russia’s Ministry of Finance has reportedly agreed with this new plan to regulate the country’s crypto trading platforms. Ivan Chebeskov, Director of the Finance Ministry’s Financial Policy Department cited by ethereumworldnews.com, revealed that the Ministry was never really in favour of the idea of setting up a national crypto exchange.

Considering recent developments, it’s likely that the Central Bank of the Russian Federation will become responsible for regulating the country’s crypto trading platforms. The idea of establishing a national crypto exchange was first revealed in November 2022, and it has received some backlash. Russia’s plans to use digital assets for cross-border payments In April 2023, the parliament of Russia published a draft law that considers using digital assets for cross-border payments in an effort overcome sanctions.

The draft law relates to Russia’s inability to use euros and dollars for payments, which is why many of its transactions are being settled in foreign currencies, even though the contracts are in euros and dollars. To alleviate the resulting foreign exchange risk, the country is considering swapping assets or tokenizing precious metals and other assets and using these for settlement. According to a series of Russian press reports cited by ledgerinsights.com, the law in question would allow both digital financial assets (DFA) and cryptocurrencies to be used only for cross-border payments for exporters.

In September 2022, the Bank of Russia admitted that cross-border payments in crypto are inevitable in the current geopolitical conditions. At the time, Deputy finance minister Alexei Moiseev took part in an interview with the Russia-24 TV channel and emphasised that the Bank of Russia and the finance ministry expect to legitimise cross-border payments in crypto in the future. As for its CBDC plans, Russia revealed in April 2023 that its digital rouble platform will support interactions with other central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).

The current development of the digital rouble includes various mechanisms designed to support communication with other state-issued digital currencies. Russian lawmakers were informed by officials from the Central Bank of Russia that specific models for CBDC interaction are still being determined and several alternatives are being considered. .