Russia To Shut Down Cryptocurrency Trading

In A Somewhat Immediate About-Face, The Russian Government Has Announced It Intends To Ban The Trade Of Cryptocurrencies Like Bitcoin Because They Can Be Used For Nefarious Purposes.

Tuesday morning, Russian Central Bank First Deputy Governor Sergei Shvetsov told a press conference that the bank would block websites that deal in the non-government-aligned digital currencies. Claiming they are used for “dubious purposes” and investors must be protected, he added:

We cannot stand apart. We cannot give direct and easy access to such dubious instruments for retail [investors].

A short time later, but hundreds of miles away in Sochi, President Vladimir Putin echoed those sentiments:

The usage of crypto-currencies carries serious risks. I know the central bank’s position on that. Crypto-currencies are issued by an unlimited number of anonymous bodies. Thus buyers of crypto-currencies could be involved in unlawful activities.

Last month, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said that governments should accept the presence of cryptocurrencies, and rather than ban them, they should work to regulate them. Earlier in the day Tuesday, he acknowledged the means of payment had become a form of high-yield investment that carried with it “unreasonably high risks.”

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