The Russian central bank aka Bank of Russia has recently shown readiness for a nationwide launch of its central bank digital currency (CBDC) Digital Ruble. Moreover, the native citizens of the country would get free access to the CBDC infrastructure.
Russia’s CBDC Digital Ruble Coming in 2025
In the latest announcement, the Bank of Russia announced that by July 1, 2025, the largest banks in Russia should enable clients to perform Digital Ruble transactions. This includes conducting money transfers along with account management. Furthermore, businesses operating in Russia would need to accept Digital Ruble payments against the goods and services sold using QR codes.
To support these changes, the Bank of Russia has also proposed legislative amendments to the Finance Ministry. As of now, the regulator is conducting a pilot project with 15 banks to test the functionality of Russia’s CBDC. Furthermore, it is also aiming to broaden the payment as well as transfer options in the national currency.
With the U.S. Sanctions following the invasion of Ukraine, Russia has been flexing its muscles to stay relevant in the international trading market. The country has seriously considered the use of decentralized cryptocurrencies for making cross-border settlements.
Starting this month on September 1, Russia has legalized the use of crypto for cross-border payments. As a result, the central bank has been backing the use of digital assets for payments with trials on the way.
Russia’s relationship with crypto has been binary – from introducing a ban in January 2024 to legalizing it a month before. Following the successful trials, the Moscow Exchange and St. Petersburg Currency Exchange plan to launch their own crypto trading platforms by the end of this year.
On the other hand, Russia is also considering legalizing Bitcoin mining operations within the country. The new legislation would bring strict regulations for crypto mining within the Russian Federation. It will also mandate all mining operators comply with oversight from the government and the Bank of Russia, including income reporting and tax obligations. With this move, Russia plans to bring a clear framework for the sale of mined cryptocurrencies.
Drawing a Leaf from Digital Yuan’s Success
With this latest move of the Digital Ruble, Russia is following in the footsteps of its strong economic ally China. The world’s second-largest economy has already been working on its CBDC Digital Yuan for a few years.
PBoC Deputy Governor Lu Lei has recently concluded that the Digital Yuan CBDC has hit a milestone of $1 trillion in transactions. Additionally, China is collaborating with multiple countries on a cross-border digital currency initiative designed to improve global payment systems.
To avoid the wrath of the US sanctions, BRICS nations are already exploring a SWIFT alternative. Previous reports also suggested that they could experiment with a Gold-backed stablecoin.
