Companies in Russia have begun using bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in international trade, the country’s finance minister, Anton Siluanov, has revealed.
The move follows an ‘experimental’ regulatory regime that took effect on November 1 2024, permitting Russian businesses and individual entrepreneurs who are officially registered with the Ministry of Digital Development to undertake crypto mining activities.
“As part of the experimental regime, it is possible to use bitcoins, which we had mined here in Russia (in foreign trade transactions),” Siluanov told Russia 24 television channel. “Such transactions are already occurring. We believe they should be expanded and developed further. I am confident this will happen next year [2025],” he said, adding that international payments in digital currencies represent the future. Russian companies, exchanges, and crypto entities are eligible to apply to the central bank to become part of the ‘experimental’ regime.
The southern republics of:
Dagestan
Ingushetia
Kabardino-Balkaria
Karachay-Cherkessia
North Ossetia, and
Chechnya
as well as Russia’s new regions:
The Donetsk People’s Republic
Lugansk People’s Republics, and
Zaporozhye region, and
Kherson regions
Earlier in 2024, Russian President, Vladimir Putin, kicked off the expanded BRICS 2024 summit by calling for the creation of an alternative international payment system aimed at curbing the U.S.’s ability to use the dollar as a political tool. “The dollar is being used as a weapon. We really see that this is so. I think that this is a big mistake by those who do this,” said Putin at the summit in the Russian city of Kazan.
#BRICS | The BRICS 2024 Summit Resolves to Establish of an Alternative International Payment System Based on National Currencies
The de-dollarization initiative is probably the most concrete proposal likely to emerge from the summit.https://t.co/we8YfpJ3zI pic.twitter.com/9wZkwP0yHs
— BitKE (@BitcoinKE) October 25, 2024
The summit saw the introduction of “BRICS Pay, a new payment system based on blockchain technology, designed to link national payment methods with commercial systems in member countries.
[TECH] BRICS | 5 Unique Features of BRICS Pay: In a significant development for the BRICS economic alliance, the ‘BRICS Pay’ system was formally introduced at the BRICS Business Forum in Russia held recently.. https://t.co/duq4mgNMxj via @BitcoinKE
— Top Kenyan Blogs (@Blogs_Kenya) November 17, 2024
According to South African Finance Minister, Enoch Gondogwana, the system came from a desire to boost trade among member countries, especially for nations like Russia, which have faced economic difficulties due to Western sanctions and exclusion from the SWIFT system.
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