Figure of the day: Russians own cryptocurrencies worth more than 16.5 trillion rubles

Economist Nikita Krichevsky admitted that he was "taken aback" by Bloomberg 's report that Russians own more than 16.5 trillion rubles worth of cryptocurrencies. ($214 billion). And the fact that it is the third country indicator in the world.

“Moreover, the figure is not taken from the ceiling - this is an estimate that the Kremlin and the government use to develop a plan for regulating the industry...”, - writes Krichevsky in his channel.

Moreover, Bloomberg stipulates that the estimate of 16.5 trillion rubles. may be underestimated because some traders hide their activities using virtual private networks. The global cryptocurrency market currently stands at about $1.75 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

A spokesman for Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko, who oversees the "figure", said that, according to government estimates, more than 17 million Russians own cryptocurrency.

Krichevsky identified three reasons why so much attention is paid to cryptocurrencies in Russia. This is corruption, tax evasion and circumvention of sanctions.

“Only it seems strange to us that cryptocurrency mining is becoming part of the state economic policy included in the road map of the Cabinet? And that the relevant departments (Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Digital Transformation, Ministry of Economics, Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Industry and Trade, Federal Tax Service, Federal Security Service, Rosfinmonitoring) were instructed to update and develop a regulatory framework for organizing the issuance of cryptocurrencies?

The institutionalization of cryptocurrencies is in full swing, the process was accelerated first by the Central Bank, which proposed to ban mining and operations with tokens altogether, and then by the president, who said that cryptocurrencies are cute and generally “beautiful”.

- Why is there so much attention to cryptocurrencies? It seems that they have become a parallel currency of Russian and foreign elites who receive bribes, kickbacks and other goodies, for example, in bitcoins.

- Another area of use is to circumvent financial sanctions against Russia.

- Finally, cryptocurrencies are a sure way to evade taxes, no matter how the bureaucracy puffs out that they have everything under control.

Accordingly, all the bureaucratic fuss around mining is nothing more than tinsel.

In Russia, there is a stable, parallel to the official, financial system. And bribes in cash (non-cash) are now practiced only by suckers.

As for up to 17 million Russian crypto-investors, it seems that this is a figure for averting eyes. It is necessary to justify the exorbitant amount of cryptocurrency belonging to compatriots.

The new cryptoworld is a given, whether Nabiullina wants it or not. And this world absolutely does not care about all the central banking restrictions and prohibitions. When you serve the powers that be, any prohibition is unimportant..."