Vladislav Ginko, an economist at the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation, said that the government is taking steps to minimize the impact of US sanctions that hit the Russian ruble by replacing some of its dollar reserves with the world's most popular cryptocurrency, Bitcoin.
Ginko believes that Russia's decision on dedollarization is basically a step towards “protecting its national interests” because of the possible interruption of “US-designated payment flows for Russian oil and gas,” and argues that investments can be up to $ 10 billion ( 7.8 billion pounds).
Ginko also said that Bitcoin and the broader cryptocurrency industry now account for 8% of Russia's GDP, and investments in support of the country's reserves with the help of BTC can begin as early as February:
The Russian government is going to take a step to start diversifying financial reserves in Bitcoin, as Russia is forced, due to sanctions, to drop US Treasury bonds and [take away] US dollars. These sanctions and the desire to introduce modern financial technologies lead Russia to invest its reserves in Bitcoin.
The Central Bank of Russia has not yet published official plans, but the country showed signs of dedollarization, increasing its holdings in euros, Chinese yuan and Japanese yens.
Prospective Russian plans to invest in a digital asset will allow the state to acquire almost one-sixth of BTC in the world, although Mati Greenspan (senior market analyst at the Etoro trading platform) believes that a purchase order may raise the price, reducing Russia's share of potential investments.
The Russian government will not be able to open an account on the stock exchange for the purchase of cryptocurrency, so investment plans are likely to include the installation of an “intermediate cryptocurrency”, which can then be exchanged for BTC.
The new cryptocurrency should be offered by a broker such as Sberbank, the state bank, and will act as a so-called “service token”.
Recall that in 2017, Vladimir Putin met with Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum cryptocurrency, to discuss opportunities in this sector, and also personally met with the head of Ethereum in recent months.
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