Too risky: Russian Central Bank is not ready to legitimize cryptocurrencies

The Central Bank of Russian Federation has issued a statement where it clarifies its current position on cryptocurrency and ICOs. It tells that due to the high risks of cryptocurrency use and circulation, the bank considers the legitimization of cryptocurrencies and other financial tools connected with cryptocurrencies to be too premature. The bank reminds: most cryptocurrency operations are made outside the financial laws of the Russian Federation and most other countries.

Altcoins, the bank believes, are not based on real value, and disseminated by anonymous participants the number of which is not regulated. Due to their anonymity, they can be involved in criminal activities, the Central Bank claims, clearly implying that cryptocurrency trading is a dirty business. But it’s completely right in the regard that the cryptocurrency values can be very volatile.

When talking about the ICOs, the bank first tells what it is, then warns that often there is no consumer protection in case of possible fraud schemes.

However, the Central Bank, or the Bank of Russia, does not intend to ban ICOs like its Chinese counterpart just did. In this statement, it merely warns of high risks and rejects to legitimize the market.

The Central Bank maintains the position expressed in January 2014 and notes that lately there has been many inquiries from market participants and journalists on this topic.