The main finance industry association of Russia has urged authorities to reconsider a position against crypto investments in the nation’s financial market strategy. The organization insists that the crypto investments of Russians should be brought out of the “gray zone” instead of being banned.
Financial Industry Body Urges Government To Regulate Operations With Crypto Assets
The Russian National Financial Association (NFA) has called for changing the country’s strategy for the development of the financial market of the Russian Federation until 2030 in the part concerning investments in cryptocurrencies, RIA Novosti reported. and Prime, citing the proposal. The NFA brings together more than 200 entities active in the Russian financial market.
The strategy now states that the Russian government and Bank of Russia will continue to oppose the use of “monetary surrogates,” a term often employed to describe decentralized digital currencies such as bitcoin. They carry high risks for citizens, according to the document, and may hinder the implementation of macroeconomic policies aimed at creating favorable economic conditions.
Operations with crypto assets remain “in the gray zone” despite the fact that Russians’ investments in cryptocurrencies are large, noted the self-regulatory body of the Russian financial sector. Foreign companies and unregistered intermediaries derive revenue from these transactions, the organization noted.
The NFA believes that the option to provide Russian investors with access to digital financial assets through Russian professional market participants, as well as the possibility of creating exchange-traded mutual investment funds with cryptocurrencies for qualified investors, requires additional study.
The proposal comes after recent reports revealed that cryptocurrency is a popular investment choice for many Russians. According to the Russian Association of Cryptoeconomics, Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain (Racib), at least 17.3 million people in Russia own crypto wallets. In December, the head of the State Duma’s Financial Markets Committee, Anatoly Aksakov, announced that Russian citizens had invested 5 trillion rubles in crypto (over $67 billion).
Bank of Russia has been a strong opponent of the legalization of cryptocurrencies in the country and wants to restrict crypto investments by blocking card payments to recipients such as digital asset exchanges. However, estimates quoted in the central bank’s own Financial Stability Overview for Q2 and Q3 of 2021 have indicated that the annual volume of digital currency transactions made by Russian residents amounts to around $5 billion.
