The Bank of Russia noted that Russian nationals transacted $51 billion (4.78 trillion rubles) in crypto during 2023. According to an annual report issued by the bank, its investigations found that volume flows equivalent to the number, especially in bitcoin and ether, were attributed to Russian nationals in large exchanges.
Bank of Russia Reports High Involvement of Citizens in Crypto Operations
The Bank of Russia pointed out the high involvement of Russian nationals in the cryptocurrency economy. The institution’s recently published yearly report found that flows attributed to Russian nationals in large exchanges amounted to $51 billion in 2023, with most operations involving bitcoin and ether.
Also, the report highlighted that the volume of cryptocurrency transactions qualified as high risk by the bank, such as p2p operations and settlements with shadow businesses, increased in 2023.
Bitcoin transaction volumes in Q1 and Q2 of 2023 showed a reduction of 22.4% compared to the volumes transacted in the same period during 2022. The bank stated that these were only transaction flows and could not be interpreted as investment volumes.
Nonetheless, the report establishes that holdings of Russians in crypto exchanges dropped by 3.1% compared to 2022.
Reports about Russians holding large amounts of cryptocurrency are not new. In 2022, Bloomberg reported that authorities estimated Russian nationals held $215 billion in crypto, motivating the government to draft a roadmap for regulating these activities.
Later in 2023, the Federal Financial Monitoring Service of the Russian Federation (Rosfinmonitoring) also alerted about the high popularity of crypto in the nation. At the time, Yury Chikhanchin, head of the service, reported a cryptocurrency turnover of more than 630,000 bitcoins, without giving more details.
However, only recently the Central Bank and the Finance Ministry met to define what can and cannot be done with cryptocurrencies internally in Russia, according to Finance Minister Anton Siluanov.
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