Published: · Region: Eastern Europe · Category: markets

Russia’s Bitcoin Green Light Signals Sanctions Workaround and Financial System Rethink

Russia has moved to allow public trading of Bitcoin, Ethereum and USDT on regulated exchanges, following a central bank proposal that marks a major shift from years of hostility to crypto. The decision offers Moscow a new channel to route value under sanctions and hints at how far it is prepared to bend its financial system to keep money moving.

Russia is opening the door to mainstream cryptocurrency trading just as Western sanctions tighten their grip on its conventional finance. Moscow has approved public trading of Bitcoin, Ethereum and the dollar-pegged stablecoin USDT on regulated exchanges, after the central bank put forward a proposal to legalize such activity. For a country that once viewed crypto primarily as a threat to financial stability, the shift is stark. The central bank’s proposal, now endorsed at the political level, allows Russian exchanges to list and facilitate trading in the three digital assets for the general public. While the fine print of implementation is still emerging, the move represents a clear departure from earlier…

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