Russia plans launch of national crypto exchange

Russ­ian law­mak­ers aim to launch a nation­al cryp­tocur­ren­cy exchange, sup­port­ed by the country’s Min­istry of Finance and the Cen­tral Bank of Rus­sia, accord­ing to a local media report.

See relat­ed arti­cle: Ukraine seizes funds from cryp­to wal­let fund­ing Russ­ian forces

Fast facts

• Mem­bers of the low­er cham­ber of the Russ­ian par­lia­ment – the Duma – have been draft­ing amend­ments to the country’s cryp­tocur­ren­cy leg­is­la­tion, which will estab­lish the ground­work for a nation­al cryp­to exchange, a source close to the mat­ter told local media out­let Vedo­mosti. 
• The amend­ments will first be pre­sent­ed to the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment and the cen­tral bank.
• Sergey Altukhov, a mem­ber of the Com­mit­tee on Eco­nom­ic Pol­i­cy, told Vedo­mosti that con­di­tions for the legal­iza­tion of cryp­tocur­ren­cy are nec­es­sary to “adjust the rules of the game,” so they do not con­tra­dict the posi­tion of the cen­tral bank and the government.
• In June, the head of Duma’s Com­mit­tee on Finan­cial Mar­ket, Ana­toly Aksakov, pro­posed the launch of a nation­al cryp­to exchange with­in the Moscow Exchange. 
• In response, the Moscow Exchange draft­ed a bill in Sep­tem­ber on behalf of the cen­tral bank to allow the trad­ing of dig­i­tal assets in the country.
• Cryp­tocur­ren­cies have been increas­ing­ly cru­cial for Russ­ian cit­i­zens in cir­cum­vent­ing West­ern sanc­tions since the start of the nation’s inva­sion of Ukraine.

See relat­ed arti­cle: Is cryp­tocur­ren­cy a workaround for sanc­tions against Russia?