Russia digital currency market growing despite regulatory inadequacy, exec says

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The digital currency market in Russia has proven to be unaffected by uncertain government regulatory measures. According to reports, the sector maintains a surprising positive trend in the absence of regulation.

In recent weeks, regulatory shortcomings or inadequacy have seen various digital currency exchanges with Russian roots fleeing the country or being forced to operate illegally, Blockchain Life founder Sergei Khitrov said.

The current value of the digital currency market sector in Russia stands at a whopping $500B. This is huge compared to the quality of regulatory measures put in place to deserve such value. In a keynote speech, Khitrov described the current status of the digital currency regulatory efforts in the country.

Sergei expressed that no digital currency exchange has officially established its operation in Russia despite the attractive market size, saying, “We know a lot of crypto exchanges with Russian roots, but unfortunately, these exchanges are either not officially registered or just based in other jurisdictions.”

In his estimation, the Russian digital currency market is worth 20–40 trillion rubles ($280–$550 billion). This is based on insights including local cash flows related to services like block reward mining. He also said that Russian’s digital currency sector could fetch as high as 284 billion rubles ($4 billion) worth of taxes a year. This, however, is contingent on whether the Russian government improves the regulatory effort in the industry.

Bitcoin is ignored in Russia

Khitrov accused the Russian authorities of continued abandonment of the sectors’ interests over the past several years.

“Without regulations that take into account the interests of the crypto community, crypto services will not be legally provided. It isn’t profitable for business to step out of the shadows,” he lamented. “The crypto community and businesses are not unknown to them, as they have in recent times been looking for ways to bring big crypto businesses to the country.”

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