The Central Bank of Russia has released a report for 2021 in which it again points to the risks associated with cryptocurrencies.

The Central Bank noted that by some estimates, the volume of cryptocurrency transactions by Russian citizens reaches $5 billion per year.

The regulator believes that the spread of crypto assets threatens the financial stability of the Russian Federation:

“With the risk of undermining monetary circulation and losing the sovereignty of the national currency, there is an increased risk of transferring savings from the traditional financial system to the unregulated segment of cryptocurrencies, which threatens to undermine the financial situation. The stability of the banks.”

The Central Bank noted that the spread of cryptocurrencies in the country and the increase in their prices indicated the formation of a “bubble”. The regulator also reiterated that there are signs of pyramids in crypto assets and that citizens can lose their investments due to the volatility of rates and limited legal protection from investors.

The Central Bank of Russia believes that the further growth of the cryptocurrency market and the involvement of banks in it is fraught with the fact that financial intermediaries will have “liquidity risk, market risk and the credit risk characteristic of cryptocurrencies.”

“Therefore, the increased interest of Russian citizens, significant investments and high risks of transactions with cryptocurrencies create potential systemic threats, for which the Central Bank of Russia proposes to take a set of measures to regulate the above risks,” he said. Central Bank summarized.

Recall that the Central Bank insisted on a complete ban on the issuance, circulation and exchange of cryptocurrencies, as well as on the organization of such operations on the territory of the Russian Federation.

The Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation does not accept such a radical position and offers to regulate the market; For this, the ministry has developed a separate draft law.

However, the Central Bank continues to talk about the need to ban cryptocurrencies. The sanctions imposed on the Russian Federation for its invasion of Ukraine also did not soften the regulator’s position on cryptoassets.