Bypass or not bypass? – Since the Russian military intervention in Ukrainevarious banks from the country of Vladimir Putin were banned from the centralized SWIFT transfer system. In this situation, some believe that Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrencies could greatly help Russia to get around these multiples economic sanctions. But as well the capacity that the will of the Russian state to use crypto-assets would be exaggeratedaccording to a lawyer, unless…
Using cryptos would require a complete turnaround
Since Vladimir Poutine made its army cross the Ukrainian border on February 24, 2022, the economic pressure on Russia is growing. Members of NATO and the EU have in particular cut access to the cross-border transfer system SWIFT to certain Russian banking institutions. And at the same time, the Russian ruble has depreciated sharply against the dollar.
With their decentralization and their censorship resistancebitcoin and cryptocurrencies might seem like the right place to help Russia get out of this economic embargo. But as Cointelegraph reports in particular, the theory is not as simple as the practice.
Jake Chervinskyattorney and policy officer of the Blockchain Association in the United States, expresses his doubtsespecially with a Russian crypto regulations still in their infancy :
“Russia cannot and does not want to use cryptocurrencies to evade sanctions. Concerns about cryptos being used to evade sanctions are completely unfounded. They imply a fundamental misunderstanding:
– How sanctions work ;
– The operation of the crypto markets;
– How Putin is actually trying to soften the sanctions. (…)”
>> Protect yourself from geopolitical uncertainties with Invictus Capital’s IML fund (affiliate link) <<
North Korea, Venezuela, Iran: why not Russia?
In the case of the first reason mentioned above, you should know that All Transactions with Russia – from businesses as well as from American citizens – are subject to sanctions. And so not only in dollars, but also in goldin Bitcoin or any other asset.
Then the important financial exchange needs of a country the size of Russia are not not compatible with the relative smallness of the young cryptocurrency market. And finally, Vladimir Putin’s plan to resist these obvious economic sanctions from Washington and its allies goes through other processes. In particular by improving the Chinese yuan and gold reserves of Russia, and by shifting its trade to Asiarather than to Europe.
But another analyst, Roman Bieda, from the Coinfirm platform, however, comes to measure these remarks. Although it seems obvious that the cryptocurrency market does not have the capacity to absorb all of Russia’s economic exchanges, other nations in opposition to the USA have used – certainly at the margin – of Bitcoin and its ilk. The expert thus rightly cites the North Koreathe Venezuela and theIran.
In any case, it unfortunately serves to pretext enough to to become heavier (sweet euphemism) always more regulations on cryptocurrencies. From the day after the start of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Christine Lagarde thus urged the EU to quickly put in place the MiCA law issue on crypto-assets.
A bit like geopolitics, crypto is sometimes complex to understand. Make the choice of tranquility and discover the index funds of Invictus Capital! the C10 Hedged facilitates the adoption of individuals by grouping the 10 most capitalized cryptocurrencies into 1 unique token. What are you waiting for to register? (affiliate link)