Russian President Vladimir Putin has requested that the nation’s government and Central Bank come to an agreement on cryptocurrencies.
At a videoconference meeting with members of the government on January 26, Putin said that he was acquainted with the discussions around cryptocurrency legislation.
“The Central Bank does not stand in our way of technological progress and is making the necessary efforts to introduce the latest technologies into this area of activity,” the Russian head of state said.
According to the Russian President, the regulator’s stance is motivated by the fact that expansion of this sort of business poses risks to Russians, given the extreme volatility of cryptocurrencies.
“Although, of course, we have certain competitive advantages here, especially in the so-called mining, referring to the electricity surplus and well-trained, available personnel in the country,” Putin declared.
Russia needs to agree on the issue
In addition, the President continued by stating that he had urged the administration and the Central Bank to reach an agreement on this matter and report back to him on the outcome.
The Bank of Russia published a report last week which called for a ban on cryptocurrency mining in the nation, the use of the Russian financial market’s infrastructure for cryptocurrency transactions, and financial institutions’ investments in cryptocurrencies and associated products.
In particular, the regulator estimates that the state controls at least 11% of the world’s processing power utilized for Bitcoin mining.
