Russia to slow down payments to cryptocurrency exchanges as Moscow seeks to stop citizens from ‘impulse purchases’ of bitcoin

Russia’s Central Bank has revealed it is holding talks with the country’s financial institutions to convince them to slow down payments to cryptocurrency exchanges in order to stop citizens from making bad monetary decisions.

Speaking to an international banking forum, First Deputy Governor of the Bank of Russia Sergey Shvetsov noted that countries around the world are discussing cryptocurrencies and their impact on the economy. However, in Moscow, there are fears it could lead citizens into financial ruin.

“There is a strong possibility that, as a high-tech financial pyramid, it could all collapse into nothing,” he said. “Why will it collapse? When will it collapse? There could be hundreds of reasons why. There could be tens, hundreds of answers as to why it won’t happen. From our perspective, it’s a complete minefield.”

To reduce the risk of ruin, the Central Bank wants its financial institutions to make it harder to buy crypto.

“We are starting to work with the banking system to put the brakes on payments to crypto exchanges, stopping opportunities for impulse purchases of these kinds of products,” he explained.

Last August, President Vladimir Putin signed a law allowing Russians to buy and sell digital denominations, moving the market out of a so-called ‘grey zone’ in financial regulation. However, businesses in the country cannot accept digital denominations on a par with the ruble, as they are not classed as legal tender.

Last month, Moscow business daily RBK revealed that Russia’s financial monitoring service had commissioned the creation of a system that will be able to track cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, allowing the government to analyze the behavior of users to find potential breaches of the law.

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