Russia’s Largest Bank ‘Sberbank’ Suspends its Crypto Plans

The largest bank of Russia, Sberbank, recently announced that it dropped its cryptocurrency-related plans, owing to the anti-cryptocurrency sentiments of the central bank of Russia.

As indicated by the local news agency TASS, the Vice President at Sberbank, Andrey Shemetov, announced the decision for suspending its crypto-related plans at a press conference, where he claimed that his bank had been waiting for cryptocurrency legislation that would allow the bank to trade cryptocurrencies.

The vice president added –

“Due to the fact that the local financial regulator as well as the central bank, the Bank of Russia, continued to show anti-crypto sentiments, the bank had to cancel its cryptocurrency-related plans.”

The VP stated –

“We waited for legislation that allows you to trade cryptocurrencies. Since the regulator is currently looking negatively at cryptocurrencies in general, we decided to suspend our cryptocurrency plans.”

As reported previously, Russian President Vladimir Putin had issued a deadline for the Russian government to adopt regulations concerning virtual assets.

In the call to action, Putin lays out the requirement to articulate federal regulation that will aid in the development of a digital economy and offer a sort of framework for oversight of the digital settlements.

However, these plans apparently were called off when a top official warned that Bitcoin has the potential to destroy governments by facilitating the offshoring of massive amounts of money.

Putin already stated in 2017 that Bitcoin’s anonymous network cannot only attract criminals but also facilitate money-laundering.

At that time, the president said –

“The risk include opportunities to launder funds acquired through criminal activities, tax evasion, even terrorism financing, as well as the spread of fraud schemes.”

Though the Central Bank of Russia believes in the draft bill on cryptocurrency regulation to be prepared enough for adoption in the spring of 2019, the Russian authority continues to puzzle the public regarding their stance towards cryptocurrency.

Kapil Gauhar

Kapil Gauhar is the founder of Blogger’s Gyan. He is a Passionate Blogger, a Big Thinker and a Creative Writer. His passion for doing friendship with words and letting people know about the wonders of the Digital World is what motivates him to take writing as a career.