In places where there’s a financial elite that acts as an oligarchy funnelling FOMO to grow their net work via crypto, there’s unlikely to be serious regulation that will hurt crypto. I think you can add the U.S. and Russia to to that list in 2022.
Russian Finance Ministry official Ivan Chebeskov has opposed the proposed ban of cryptocurrency operations in Russia. Russians own more than 16.5 trillion rubles ($214 billion) worth of cryptocurrencies, according to an estimate the Kremlin and government officials are using to craft a plan to regulate the industry.
Russia was once on pace to ban Bitcoin and crypto like China has, but appearances can be deceiving. A document that sets the principles for cryptocurrency regulation appeared on a government website in January, 2022.
Russia apparently holds around 12% of the global market of crypto. In case you are really good at math that’s about one third of the market capitalization of Russia’s benchmark stock index—helps explain why the government sees more value in regulating the sector than imposing an outright ban, according to analysts.
The Russian Finance Minister is certainly on the take. His support is a response to the Russian central bank proposing a blanket ban on crypto mining and trading. Russia, the land of the crypto free?
Bitcoin and crypto is an efficient way for the top 1% of any country to quickly and easily gain grow their wealth in leaps and bounds. When you have $Billion it seems to HODL Bitcoin also works better than global equities that could tumble when Russia itself decides to invade Ukraine.
It’s all a bit baffling and an about turn. The Russian government is expected to unveil ways to regulate cryptocurrency by Friday (Feb. 11), according to Bitcoin.com report citing a Russian newspaper. Maybe Putin owns too much Bitcoin, which would be a rational explanation for the move.
The head of the lower house of parliament’s financial markets committee Anatoly Aksakov in December cited data that Russians owned cryptocurrencies worth about 5 trillion rubles, according to the Tass news service. However much it is, apparently it’s too much to regulate in any ban.
Some nations like El Salvador are embracing the digital asset, while others like China are banning it completely. Last week, India also took a step toward legalization by imposing a 30% tax on digital asset transfers, which some in the industry viewed as a move toward giving cryptocurrencies legitimacy. It is a confusing time for the regulation, I mean the lack of regulation of these digital assets which have no real practical use. Yet, nor since 2009.
Russians seem to really like crypto, too. More than 17 million Russians, or about 12% of the total population, are cryptocurrency owners, according to data from the Singapore-based tripleA payment gateway. Sixty percent of local crypto investors are aged between 25 and 44, while more than 500,000 local computer programmers work in the industry, according to the people involved in the discussions.
One month ago, the Bank of Russia reiterated its position on crypto. The country’s central bank said every private digital currency transaction should be conducted outside the country. Could the Finance Minister be in error? Which part of Russia should we believe?
Last month, Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world in terms of daily trading volume, said it wants to expand its cryptocurrency exchange in Russia. The company said Russia is of strategic importance.
Russia’s new regulatory stance toward crypto stands in contrast to that of U.S. regulators. Although Securities and Exchange Commission chair Gary Gensler has made it clear he wants to regulate cryptocurrencies, few specific regulations have been imposed. The regulation of crypto is basically a joke in the 2020s even as Bitcoin leads to even more FOMO, hacking, fraud and money laundering.
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