Member of the Civic Chamber of Russia Floata Idea for Crypto Bank

Member of the Civic Chamber of Russia Floata Idea for Crypto Bank

Russia needs its own bank enabled for cryptography that could help fight illicit transactions and support miners by providing infrastructure to charge their profits, says a member of the country’s government supervision body.

Evgeny Masharov, a member of the Civic Chamber of Russia, which examines law projects, told the state news agency Tass that Russia should follow its ally Belarus by launching a cryptography exchange service through an important financial institution.

Masharov said that the measure “would solve a series of current problems”, such as carrying “shade transactions” to the legal field while “replenishes the income of the federal budget” and blocks one of the “channels to finance and recruit our citizens to commit serious crimes.”

Russia prohibited payments through cryptography in early 2022, but has opened to the sector, since it seeks to trade internationally and avoid the sanctions it faces for its invasion of Ukraine.

Until now, it has allowed financial institutions to offer products based on cryptography to accredited investors in May and raised plans for a ruble stable in April.

Evgeny Masharov, a member of the Russian Civic Chamber, has proposed that the country creates a cryptographic bank. Source: OPRF.RU

Crypto Bank could also help miners

Masharov argued that a cryptographic bank could help the country’s cryptographic mining industry, since there is currently no infrastructure to sell the cryptography they have extracted.

Russia prohibited mining in 10 of 46 Russian regions for six years on January 1 and approved seasonal restrictions in key mining regions to help fight the growing energy demands.

However, Vyacheslav Kopylov, a representative of the local cryptographic mining firm in Prostomining, told Cointelegraph in June that despite the restrictions, the industry continues to thrive and the Blockchain forum in Russia has increasingly presented more and more businesses involved in cryptographic mining.

One way to combat fraud

Masharov said that a cryptographic bank could help combat fraud, since it would be a regulated institution that supervises all transactions.

Related: The Russian civic chamber proposes a dedicated background for confiscated cryptographic assets

“In this case, the agreements in said bank must be done in cryptocurrencies, and the funds must be accredited only through the current accounts of Russian citizens,” he said.