Russia’s central bank and Rosfinmonitoring are collaborating on a groundbreaking project to track the connections between cryptocurrency transactions and traditional fiat operations. This initiative is part of a larger effort to assess the scale of the local crypto market.
According to a recent report by RBC, Ilya Bushmelev, the director of project portfolio management at “Innotech,” shared details about the project during a forum organized by Rosfinmonitoring. The platform is currently in the pilot testing phase with five banks participating, although their names have not been disclosed.
Bushmelev mentioned that the pilot program is scheduled to run until the end of May, with the possibility of an extension based on the results. The main goal is to establish a solid foundation for financial institutions in terms of complying with cryptocurrency regulations, including implementing procedures such as “know-your-crypto-client” and “know-your-crypto-transaction.” It is still unknown whether the pilot has yielded positive outcomes.
This development is a testament to Russia’s ongoing efforts to navigate the complexities of the crypto landscape. In October 2023, Russian lawmaker Anton Tkachev shared that a Russian bank had started monitoring its customers’ crypto activities as part of the government’s initiative to create regulatory frameworks for state corporations entering the crypto sector. However, there have been no public announcements regarding the results of that pilot program.
Meanwhile, authorities in the U.S. and U.K. are closely monitoring crypto transactions for potential links to Russia, suggesting that over $20 billion may have passed through the sanctioned Russian crypto exchange, Garantex. It remains unclear whether Russia’s central bank and Rosfinmonitoring are specifically targeting transactions related to Garantex or aiming to track all crypto activities within the traditional financial sector.
For more information, the Lazarus group has reportedly turned to Garantex for laundering stolen assets.