Russia will issue its first virtual currency, CriptoRubla

The adoption of cryptocurrencies seems to be on the rise in Russia - where lawmakers have suggested the idea of promoting domestic cryptocurrency exchanges as an alternative to using international platforms.

Russia ranks third in terms of crypto technical capability, primarily in bitcoin.

Western sanctions, aimed at shrinking the Russian economy and tearing it apart from the global financial system, have forced companies and firms in the field to close down in Russia.

But many of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, including Binance, Kraken and Coinbase, have decided not to implement a general ban on Russian customers, despite a request from the Ukrainian government.

Some of the world's leading cryptocurrency trading platforms continue to operate in Russia, a decision that could weaken the West's efforts to economically isolate Moscow after Russia's army invaded Ukraine.

There are reports that the Russians are in a hurry to change their savings into cryptocurrencies in order to avoid the effect of sanctions.

The volume of transactions between rubles and cryptocurrencies reached 15.3 billion rubles on Monday, a value three times higher than that recorded a week ago.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has officially announced that Russia will issue its first cryptocurrency, called "CriptoRubla", during a closed-door meeting in Moscow.

According to the Russian official, the cryptocurrency cannot be exploited and will be issued, controlled and maintained only by the authorities. "CryptoRubles" can be exchanged for normal rubles at any time, but if the owner cannot explain where "CryptoRubles" come from, he risks a 13% tax.

The same fee will apply to any difference earned between the purchase price of the currency and the sale price.

Even if the announcement indicates that Russia will enter the world of virtual currencies, this does not mean that the country will legalize Bitcoin or any other decentralized virtual currency. On the contrary, Putin recently called for a complete ban on all virtual currencies in Russia.