The Russian Central Bank asserts it is successfully reducing the country’s high-risk peer-to-peer (P2P) crypto transactions. Officials report a 2.8-fold decrease in such activities compared to 2023 levels. These results emerge from the bank’s latest financial stability review, covering the second and third quarters of 2024.
Russia Blocks Risky P2P Crypto Transactions
The Central Bank attributes success to extensive collaboration with commercial banks across Russia. They’ve blocked many risky transactions occurring through P2P crypto trading platforms using suspicious accounts. The bank says illicit activities are rarely done through cards or accounts issued to real individuals.
The goal is to disrupt these schemes, and the regulator has been sharing strategies with banks to alert them to fraudulent transfers. According to the bank, this joint effort has substantially reduced unauthorized transactions. Officials say such measures are crucial to combat the illegal circulation of cryptocurrencies.
While Russia’s crypto market has made progress toward regulation, P2P trade in cryptocurrency still goes unregulated, which hampers our ability to address issues relating to this sector comprehensively. An unregulated market means fragmented exchanges, shadow operators, and cross-border cash transfers through crypto. The P2P market has grown with this environment, complicating enforcement actions.
Bitcoin Leads Russian Crypto Holdings Decline
Any transactions with high risk that have fallen do not diminish the overall crypto activity linked to Russian investors, the Central Bank admitted. According to the regulator, Russian investors pumped 18% more money into Bitcoin from January through May than a year ago. In this period, Russians reportedly transacted $44.8 billion in crypto.
Considering the explosive increase in traffic from Russian IP addresses to international crypto exchange platforms compared to previous months, Russian web traffic grew by 56.5%, reaching 166.9 million visits. Since then, Russian users have increased to 7.5% of total traffic to the major crypto exchanges, up from 6.2%. The bank’s measures have not matched the growing interest in this trend.
It is also estimated that Russian crypto balances on exchanges fell by 16% over that period to around $6.1 billion. The Central Bank states the shift is because they see market volatility decreasing. These holdings comprise 69% Bitcoin, 21% Ethereum and 10% stablecoin.
Russian Crypto Market Grows Despite Crackdown Efforts
According to the Central Bank, growing market dynamics lead many Russians to expect cryptocurrency values to continue growing. The positive sentiment comes from potential U.S. monetary easing and meme coins excitement. However, the regulator is wary of such speculative optimism.
Also, crypto adoption has systematically increased with new digital projects linked to chat applications and the distribution of rewards using digital assets. Although such initiatives capture user interest, the bank warns that the market capitalization is small. Other projects make the world of crypto complex, but they need to do something to stabilize it.
Although the enforcement measures are in place, the regulator acknowledges that there are still problems with actively restricting crypto activities. The inquiry acknowledges that Russian traders continue participating in global markets and that further supervisory oversight is needed. Policymakers remain attentive to these occurrences, hoping to refine their strategies.
However, the Russian Central Bank says it is making significant strides in eliminating high-risk P2P crypto transactions while still noting growth across the market. Illegal activity has been curtailed through close collaboration with banks, but unregulated markets and a growing interest in crypto make enforcement more complicated. According to crypto adoption, the Central Bank faces the double challenge of promoting stability while earnestly keeping new risks from developing.
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