Source: hamara/Adobe

Russian legal and tech experts think that 2024 will mark a turning point for the use of crypto and CBDCs like the digital ruble in cross-border payments.

Per RBC, Andrey Tugarin, the head of the law firm GMT Legal , said:

“The main trend to look out for in 2024 will be the use of digital assets to make cross-border payments.”

Tugarin noted that the term “digital assets” in Russia “includes not only cryptoassets, but also digital financial assets and the digital ruble.”

The legal expert noted that “by the end of 2023,” several Russian projects had “appeared,” with many “ready to provide technical solutions for making cross-border payments using cryptocurrency.”

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These solutions include a number of bank-led solutions, as well as joint bank-crypto exchange-run projects.

Some firms have already begun doing direct, crypto-powered business with overseas companies – apparently with Moscow’s knowledge and blessing.

But Tugarin bemoaned the fact there are “still no ready-made solutions for using digital financial assets [digitized commodities] for these purposes.”

He said that the same was also true for the digital ruble, despite the fact that Moscow and the Kremlin appear to have fast-tracked their CBDC pilot.

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Russia to Make Cross-border Crypto, CBDC Pay Progress in 2024?

Meanwhile, Maria Telegina, a legal expert and lecturer at the Moscow Digital School, was quoted as stating:

“In 2024, we expect the launch of an experimental platform for the use of cryptocurrency and digital financial assets for international payments. I believe that both the market and ordinary citizens expect this.”

Telegina said that such solutions would help “solve a number of problems” caused by EU and US-led sanctions.

She conceded that the sanctions were putting “pressure on our financial system,” but suggested crypto and CBDC payment solutions could alleviate this.

A Blockchain Law teacher at the Moscow Digital School named Dmitry Kirillov said:

“For the digital ruble, I hope that testing and the formation of a regulatory framework will be completed ahead of schedule. I am hopeful that we will be able to see a working payment tool soon – not in a year’s time, but earlier.”

The Central Bank has ruled out a digital ruble rollout before 2025, but the nation’s finance ministry has claimed that “all citizens” will be able to “experience” making CBDC payments in the next 12 months.

Russia’s Finance Minister Anton Siluanov speaking at a financial forum last year. (Source: Kosmoloskaya Pravda/YouTube)

Crypto Adoption to Rise in Russia in 2024?

Finally, Kirill Lyakhmanov, the Chief Legal Advisor of the Intellectual Property Department at the EBR Law Firm, predicted that the “fragmentation of global financial markets” would “lead to an increased interest in cryptocurrencies.”

Lyakhmanov added that “despite the collapse of the NFT market in 2023,” these assets still “have a future in the utility tokens” field – “even in Russia.”

Talk in Moscow has cooled on the subject of launching a state-run crypto exchange that would allow domestic industrial miners to sell their coins.

Lawmakers had previously floated the idea of creating a branch of the Moscow Exchange that would also have allowed importers and exporters to swap coins for fiat.

However, Russian crypto industry insiders claimed last year that domestic firms were already exploring crypto-powered solutions for trade with Iranian companies.

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