The Bank of Russia has delayed the rollout of its central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot for an indefinite period, as certain legislation has only passed through the first reading in the Russian Parliament. The number of private banks participating in the pilot has also changed from 15 to 13, and the pilot will involve limited-scale real operations and consumers, with the banks entering the pilot with chosen customers. The CBDC pilot was initially scheduled for 2024 but was moved to an earlier date as the Bank of Russia was looking for an alternative to the SWIFT payments system amid Western economic sanctions against Russia.

Like in other countries, Russia is seeing a rise in the use of Cryptocurrency. On the path to widespread Cryptocurrency acceptance, meanwhile, it confronts significant challenges. Let’s take a deeper dive into the state of the Cryptocurrency market in Russia by analyzing the nation’s Cryptocurrency regulations.

As part of the talks that Russian president Vladimir Putin and Chinese president Xi Jinping are currently conducting in Russia, Russia has vowed to move to use the Chinese yuan as a settlement currency with countries in Asia, Africa, and Latam. Putin expressed that using national currencies for international trading “should be encouraged further.”

Russian crypto exchanges that can transfer money abroad without following know-your-customer (KYC) procedures and anti-money laundering (AML) are in the focus of a study conducted by the Russian Chapter of Transparency International. The results were presented in a new report published on Wednesday.

Digital financial assets (DFAs) for a total exceeding $26 million have been issued in Russia in the past year. This new market has been developing since it was regulated in 2021 and the country’s monetary authority started licensing issuers in the following year.

The adoption of blockchain is the right direction for Russia to solve its current settlement issues, according to an executive at Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank.

Nowadays the crypto industry is not completely free from political influence. Here is how the Binance P2P platform interacts with Russian and Ukrainian users.

Use of cryptocurrencies is increasing in Russia, the head of the country’s financial watchdog has informed President Putin. The agency, Rosfinmonitoring, is following thousands of participants in digital asset transactions with a new blockchain analytics system, the official revealed.

The top Russian anti-money laundering regulator says that it is “monitoring” over 25,000 crypto users – and claims it has sophisticated tools that let it detect illegal activities.

Russia’s government has issued a new order directing cryptocurrency miners to report earnings or face jail time. Local media outlets have reported that miners will have to declare this income or face up to four years in prison.