Russia’s central bank will not consider cryptocurrencies as means of payment, Bank of Russia First Deputy Chairwoman Olga Skorobogatova said during a Finance Ministry meeting today, Radio Liberty reported.
Deputy Finance Minister Aleksei Moiseyev said his ministry may approve the use of cryptocurrencies for initial coin offering (ICO) investments.
Moiseyev said "digital money will be assessed not as currency for payment but rather as property."
He also suggested that cryptocurrency mining activities should be taxed.
Meanwhile, Russia is considering the possibility of introducing a digital currency within the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) and the so-called BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa),
The country’s central bank is expected to study the issue in 2018, Bank of Russia First Deputy Chairwoman Olga Skorobogatova told reporters in Moscow.
"There are a lot of technological and macroeconomic aspects, so I think next year will be devoted to working out approaches to the possibility of issuing such a supranational cryptocurrency," Skorobogatova said.