Russian Senior Official: Russia Should Develop its Own Stablecoin

BlockBeats News, April 17th - A senior Russian Ministry of Finance official said on Wednesday that Russia should develop its own stablecoin pegged to other currencies after a Russia-related digital wallet holding popular USDT stablecoin was blocked last month.

Amid Western sanctions making international payments more difficult, Russian regulators have allowed experimental use of cryptocurrency in international payments. Before the blocking, USDT was widely used as a payment tool in Russian companies. "The recent blocking has prompted us to start considering creating an internal tool similar to USDT, possibly pegged to other currencies," said Osman Kavaev, Deputy Director of the Ministry of Finance's Financial Policy Department.

Russian cryptocurrency exchange Garantex had stated on March 6th that Tether, the creator of USDT, had blocked a digital wallet holding over 2.5 billion rubles ($30.12 million) on its platform, forcing it to suspend operations a few days after being hit by EU sanctions.

However, Elvira Nabiullina, the head of the Central Bank of Russia, opposes the use of cryptocurrency in domestic payments. She stated that as part of the experiment, Russian companies are actively testing international cryptocurrency payments.