Whether Russia should legalize cryptocurrencies remains a big question, the nation’s central bank chief said Thursday the regulator is considering the launch of a gold-backed cryptocurrency for international settlements, the state-run TASS news agency reported.
According to the governor of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, Elvira Nabiullina, the bank sees benefits to create the new coin to develop the fiat settlement systems within the Eurasian Economic Union.
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Nabiullina’s project could stand to benefit from a new set of cryptocurrency regulations that the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia, also known as the Russian State Duma, is planning to adopt later this year.
She then revealed that the central bank and colleagues from other countries are analyzing possible options for its solution within the framework of the international committee on payment and market systems.
Claiming that it would solve the issue of legacy systems, she added: “As for mutual settlements, we will consider, of course, your proposal on what cryptocurrency is tied to gold. But, in my opinion, it is more important to develop settlements in national currencies.”
The future of cryptocurrency in Russia remains uncertain
However, Nabiullina reiterates the bank’s previous position regarding digital currencies, which has repeatedly spoken against the legalization of the virtual asset class. She previously told Russian business circles and policymakers that their legalization is actually a loss of control over the money flows from abroad.
“We, in principle, of course, are opposed to cryptocurrencies being launched into our monetary system. We do not see this possibility, that cryptocurrencies, in fact, fulfill here the function of monetary surrogates. In this part, definitely not,” she added.
Despite this news, it seems that crypto regulations might not be a priority at the moment as it was reported last week that the Prime Minister of Russia Dimitri Medvedev stated that cryptocurrencies have lost their popularity.