Central Bank of Russia: Joint efforts with banks to combat P2P cryptocurrency exchanges have been effective

The Central Bank of Russia stated that it is winning the fight against peer-to-peer (P2P) cryptocurrency exchanges, and its 'efforts to combat the illegal circulation of cryptocurrencies in Russia' have proven to be 'successful.' Compared to 2023 data, the number of high-risk P2P transactions conducted in the country has 'decreased by 2.8 times.' This claim was made in its latest financial stability assessment, which focused on the economic performance in the second and third quarters of the 2024 fiscal year.
The Central Bank of Russia has been working together with all commercial banks across the country since the beginning of the year. Regulators and banks stated that they have joined forces to block dozens of transactions associated with P2P trading platforms.
It is understood that the cryptocurrency trading market in Russia remains unregulated. Although Moscow introduced several cryptocurrency-related laws in the second half of 2024, none of them addressed issues related to exchanges.
The exchange market is also highly fragmented and filled with underground participants and companies that claim to facilitate cross-border cash transfers using cryptocurrencies. As a result, the P2P market size has expanded. In June 2023, a cybersecurity platform reported that Russian traders could conduct trades worth approximately '$296 million' daily.
The Central Bank of Russia reported that underground cryptocurrency exchanges and P2P operators 'typically use payment cards or accounts issued to fictitious individuals' for settlements, and combating such schemes has become a top priority. The bank is now maintaining 'ongoing cooperation' with credit institutions and providing assistance to banks in blocking transfers.
Additionally, global cryptocurrency platform website traffic from Russian IP addresses increased by 56.5%, reaching 166.9 million visits. Russian visitors currently account for 7.5% of all visitors to major global cryptocurrency trading platforms, an increase of 1.3% since the last data release.
The bank also noted that in the third quarter of 2024, the 'estimated balance of cryptocurrency wallet holdings by Russians' (in exchanges) decreased by 16% compared to March, with Russians holding approximately $6.1 billion in these wallets, of which 69% is Bitcoin, while the remaining tokens are Ethereum (21%) and stablecoins (10%). (RBC)