Russia’s Bold Move: National Crypto Bank Proposal Aims to Pull Millions from Financial Shadows

Russian policymakers drop bombshell proposal for state-backed crypto institution

Breaking the Mold

A high-ranking Russian official just pitched creating a national cryptocurrency bank—aiming to drag millions in shadow economy transactions into the light. The move signals Moscow's growing crypto ambitions despite previous regulatory hesitation.

Shadow Economy Shakeup

The proposal targets Russia's massive informal economy, estimated to involve millions of citizens operating outside traditional banking. A state-sanctioned crypto bank could provide legitimacy—and oversight—to previously hidden financial flows.

Regulatory Revolution

This isn't just another bureaucratic initiative. It represents a fundamental shift in how nations might approach digital asset integration—state-sponsored infrastructure rather than pure prohibition or wild-west free markets.

Global Implications

Watch other nations closely—if Russia successfully pulls this off, we might see copycat initiatives worldwide. Nothing inspires government action like the prospect of actually taxing previously hidden wealth.

Because nothing motivates policymakers like discovering billions in untaxed transactions—except maybe finding ways to claim their cut.

Russian Gov’t Urged To Follow Belarus’ Footsteps

Yevgeny Masharov, a member of the Russian Public Chamber’s commission on public review of draft laws and other regulatory acts, has affirmed that the government should follow Belarus’ steps and explore the creation of a national crypto bank.

In a Tuesday interview with state news media outlet TASS, the government advisor highlighted Belarus’ recent plan to develop robust regulations and establish a digital assets bank. This followed President Alexander Lukashenko’s push for the country’s banks to expand their use of digital assets in cross-border payments and financial operations.

“The Russian Federation also needs to create its own crypto bank. This will solve several current problems,” Masharov said, explaining that it WOULD bring transactions that are in the shadows, which amount to hundreds of billions of rubles, into the legal field, replenishing federal budget revenues.

The legalization of digital currencies has made it possible to decriminalize this segment of the financial market, while it is obvious that this replenishes taxes to the budget and, consequently, brings many types of activities out of the shadows.

To achieve this, he considers that “payments in this bank should be made in cryptocurrencies, and funds should only be credited through the settlement accounts of Russian citizens.”

Additionally, the project would also help solve one of the persisting problems in regulating miners’ activities. He detailed that there’s no infrastructure for crypto miner to sell their mined digital assets yet, despite the legalization of the sector last year. Therefore, creating a Russian crypto bank would allow miners to sell their assets to a domestic financial entity.

Bringing Crypto Out Of The Shadows

Masharov added that the creation of a crypto bank will reduce fraud cases and “block one of the channels for financing and recruiting our citizens to commit serious crimes, including against the state.”

He pointed out that “fraudsters and Western special services” have taken advantage of the crypto-related loopholes in Russia’s legislation, while “the main business of crypto exchanges is that cash is credited to citizens’ wallets and a commission is charged for this.”

Masharov also highlighted that Russia has adopted several laws to adopt an experimental legal regime (ELR), which aims to “legalize crypto assets and bring crypto operations out of the shadows.”

As reported by Bitcoinist, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov unveiled a plan to establish a dedicated exchange for “highly qualified investors” alongside the Bank of Russia (BOR) in April.

Notably, entities or individuals with investments in securities and deposits exceeding 100 million rubles or with annual incomes surpassing 50 million rubles could participate in the program.

Nonetheless, Finance Ministry official Alexey Yakovlev recently stated that the government must reduce the income and asset requirements, arguing that the current limits could hinder the supervised pilot’s chances to succeed.