Russia Weighs Launch of Crypto Bank to Tackle Fraud and Support Miners
- Masharov says Russia should open its own crypto bank, like Belarus, to stop illegal money dealings and help the government collect more tax.
- He also suggests such a bank could make it harder for criminals and fraudsters to hide money in crypto, since all payments would go through legal Russian accounts.
- It would also give Russian miners a legal way to sell the cryptocurrency they produce, which is not fully possible in Russia right now.
Russia may soon take a bold step in regulating digital finance, according to Yevgeny Masharov, a member of the Public Chamber commission for public examination of draft laws. Speaking to TASS, Masharov said the country should create its own national cryptobank, following the path being discussed in Belarus, which plans to build a legal framework for such an institution. He explained that a cryptobank in Russia could help move shadow transactions into the open, where they can be taxed and recorded, rather than left in the grey zone of unregulated markets.
Masharov stressed that these shadow flows amount to hundreds of billions of rubles, and bringing them under legal control would give a direct boost to the federal budget. He also said the bank would help cut off channels that criminals currently use for financing illegal activities and recruiting citizens into serious crimes, including ones aimed against the state. “The Russian Federation also needs to create its own crypto bank. This will solve a number of current problems,” he said.
Masharov Links Crypto Fraud and Scams to Weak Oversight
Alongside the financial benefit, Masharov linked the idea to the fight against fraud, which he said continues to spread in Russia through the use of crypto wallets. According to him, organized fraud schemes often rely on “droppers,” individuals used to move stolen money, which is then transferred into cryptocurrency.
These funds are later converted into real estate, cars, and luxury goods, making it difficult for authorities to track or recover them. He argued that a crypto bank operating under national rules could block these channels by forcing all operations to pass through registered accounts of Russian citizens, with settlements carried out directly in cryptocurrency.
This would break the current model where crypto exchangers act as middlemen, crediting wallets with cash and charging commissions. “At present, the main business of exchangers is that cash is credited to wallets of citizens, and a commission is charged for this,” Masharov explained, adding that the lack of legal oversight around this process has allowed fraud networks to flourish. By placing these transfers under state supervision, the cryptobank could cut off the very tools that enable cybercrime and online scams.
Proposed Cryptobank Could Open Legal Path for Miners in Russia
Masharov also emphasized that a Russian cryptobank would create an important bridge for miners, who have no clear domestic outlet for selling the coins they produce. He noted that while Russia has passed several laws to test cryptocurrency settlements in international trade, miners inside the country still cannot legally sell or exchange their digital assets through Russian institutions.
A cryptobank, in his view, would provide the infrastructure for those sales, bringing the mining sector into the legal economy. He contrasted this with Belarus, where authorities have allowed digital currency activity to develop for years under the High-Tech Park system and where licensed crypto exchanges and brokers are already operating. That approach, Masharov said, has made it possible to take activity that once happened underground and turn it into a regulated, taxable market. “Legalization of digital currencies has made it possible to decriminalize this segment of the financial market,” Masharov said of Belarus, arguing that Russia needs to follow with its own system before the gap in regulation grows wider.
