The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) is currently in talks with numerous participants in the country’s financial market to find out ways to restrict crypto access for domestic investors. The regulator’s sandbox has tested a crypto project whose founder recently revealed that one of the options being considered by the government is card payment blocking to crypto platforms.
It’s up to the country’s monetary authority to persuade banks to put a halt to transactions with particular Merchant Category Codes (MCC). These codes are 4 digits that are assigned to payment recipients depending on the offered services. 6051 is the code for digital asset exchange platforms.
The bank has already recommended commercial banks to block crypto exchange platforms and service providers. However, there’s no advisory report that details the bank’s official position on crypto.
In a meeting held in the Russian Parliament’s lower house on Tuesday, Olga Skorobogatova, the Deputy Governor, clarified that cryptocurrencies would not be banned. However, she stressed the CBR’s reluctance to see cryptocurrencies in circulation in Russia. According to Skorobogatova, the CBR wants to ban crypto investments altogether.
The good news for cryptocurrency advocates in Russia is that not all participants in the crypto discussion agree with the CBR’s hardline approach. There are some, like Federal Financial Monitoring Service deputy director Herman Neglyad, who are open to the idea of crypto circulation in the country. However, they believe that the crypto flows should happen in a controlled manner, especially when it comes to transactions between the conventional financial system and the crypto space.
