Russia Considers CryptoRuble

Russia is making a big move in the digital currency market, announcing that it will soon be offering its own cryptocurrency.

According to UK’s Express, the cryptocurrency – dubbed the CryptoRuble – will launch in a few weeks. Once it does, all other cryptocurrencies will be banned in the country.

Russia’s Communications Minister Nikolay Nikiforov said the government plans to fully regulate the CryptoRuble, which will be taxed, and use a Russian-designed encryption so that it can remain traceable.

“I am so confident to declare that we will run CryptoRuble just for one simple reason: If we don’t, our neighbors in the Eurasian Economic Community will do it in a couple of months,” said Nikiforov. “When buying and selling a CryptoRuble, the rate will be 13 percent from the earned difference. If the owner cannot explain the reason for the appearance of his CryptoRubles, when converting them into Russian rubles, the tax for him will be 13 percent of the total.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin plans on taking the CryptoRuble international. He has previously been extremely critical of bitcoins, saying just last week that the currency was “risky and used for crime,” such as money laundering, tax evasion and funding for terrorism.

“This mustn’t be a private currency, but the one, which is issued by the state, controlled by the state and [able] to provide circulation of digital money in light of the digital economy,” said Oleg Fomichev, Russia’s deputy minister of economic development.

In June, it was reported that the country’s central bank was testing out several digital currency schemes to determine which would work best for Russia.

“Regulators of all countries agree that it’s essential to develop a national digital currency, that it is the future,” said Olga Skorobogatova, the deputy governor of the central bank. “Each country will decide on specific timeframes for itself. Based on the pilot projects [that] we are conducting, we will understand which system we could use in our case for our national currency.”