Russian crypto advocates urge Putin to stop regulatory hostility
Russia’s existing regulatory stance on the cryptocurrency industry would potentially lead the country to “direct financial losses,” the RACIB argued. As Russia continues to delay adopting crypto currency regulations, local advocates have appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin to change the government’s approach to regulating the market. The Russian Association of Crypto Industry and Blockchain (RACIB) — a major group of crypto and blockchain enthusiasts in Russia — issued an open letter to Putin on March 6, urging the president to address the risks of ignoring the global development of the crypto industry. In the letter, the RACIB argued that Russia has been too slow to implement experimental legal regimes targeting crypto adoption despite enforcing its first crypto law, “On Digital Financial Assets,” in 2021. In November 2022, lawmakers in Russia introduced a series of legal amendments to the crypto law, proposing to launch a “national cryptocurrency exchange.” According to th...