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In an interview with CNBC, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that cryptocurrencies have value — but he’s not convinced they can replace the U.S. dollar in settling oil trades. Some months ago, Russia’s deputy prime minister, Alexander Novak, suggested the country could move away from greenback-denominated crude contracts if the U.S. continues to impose targeted economic sanctions.
“Too early to talk about the trade of energy resources in crypto.”
When asked whether bitcoin or another cryptocurrency could be used as an alternative to the dollar, Putin said it’s “too early to talk about the trade of energy resources in crypto.” “I believe that it has value, but I don’t believe it can be used in the oil trade,” Putin said at the Russian Energy Week event in Moscow Wednesday. Cryptocurrency is not supported by anything as of yet,” Putin said. “It may exist as a means of payment, but I think it’s too early to say about the oil trade in cryptocurrency.”
Russian President also mentioned cryptocurrencies’ massive power consumption.
The Russian leader also flagged cryptocurrencies’ massive consumption of energy as a potential barrier to their use. Bitcoin requires lots of computing power to process transactions and mint new tokens. This has been a hot topic of debate inside and outside the crypto community. As reported earlier, the U.S has become the leading country with the most bitcoin miners after China’s crackdown on cryptocurrencies. Most bitcoin miners are now turning toward clean energy to power their computers, but the problem still persists. Central banks across countries are also working on central bank-backed digital currencies (CBDCs) to ward off competition from private and decentralized cryptocurrencies.
