The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) is reportedly working with commercial banks to delay payments made to crypto exchanges.
During the event in Sochi, a CBR official explained that the objective of slowing down crypto exchange payments is to limit the so-called “emotional” purchases made by “unqualified” investors, news.bitcoin.com reports. The move will likely affect peer-to-peer and over-the-counter trading platforms. According to CBR’s Deputy Chairman Sergei Shvetsov:
“We are starting to work with the banking system so that it slows down payments in favor of exchange offices and cryptocurrency exchanges, fencing off opportunities for emotional purchases of this kind of products.”
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The central bank’s decision comes amid rising investor interest in Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Dogecoin (DOGE) and other cryptocurrencies. Despite that cryptocurrencies are going mainstream, CBR remains skeptical about investing in digital assets.
CBR considers crypto as a risky investment
Last week, the central bank’s First Deputy Governor Sergei Shvetsov said that investing in crypto is risky and is comparable to getting involved in a pyramid scheme.
“When it comes to buying [cryptocurrency] for investment purposes, we are skeptical about this idea. We believe it’s different from traditional assets, it’s highly risky and has signs of a pyramid scheme,” Shvetsov said.
In June, CBR head Elvira Nabiullina also warned that investing in crypto assets is the most dangerous investment strategy and called digital coins as speculative assets.
“The price is very volatile; losses may be appalling. The Central Bank never gives advice, where to invest, but in this particular case – here [one] should definitely not [invest],” Nabiullina said.
Russia’s stance on crypto assets
This is not the first time that authorities in Russia discouraged crypto investments. In July this year, the CBR also announced new regulations that called on stock exchanges not to offer crypto-related products to investors.
According to the CBR, crypto assets are risky because of their highly volatile nature, pricing issues, lack of transparency, limited liquidity, and unclear regulations.
In August, Russian President Vladimir Putin also ordered the Bank of Russia, along with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Labor to prepare by Nov. 15 their proposal for a procedure that would verify ownership of digital assets.
The country’s financial monitoring agency, Rosfinmonitoring, has also commissioned the creation of a new system to track and analyze the behavior of crypto investors, as well as identify those who invest in crypto assets.
[coinbase]
