State-backed stablecoins have been on the rise in the past few months, and Russia is taking the next step towards launching its own. It is reported that the country's central bank has begun testing digital currencies backed by real assets in a sandbox.
Russia is testing digital assets
Head of the Central Bank of Russia Elvira Nabiullina recently said Olga, about the plans and actions of the bank in relation to digital assets. She points out that they have begun testing the digital currency in a regulatory sandbox specifically designed for companies looking to issue digital tokens protected by real assets.
Nabiullina notes that before the final product will be presented to the public, he must know exactly what he can do and how he can benefit the participants:
“First of all, we need to understand what advantages our citizens will have, for example, for business, compared with instant payment systems, because the issue of the digital ruble can have serious consequences, leading to changes in the financial structure. market, outflow of deposits and redistribution of funds. ”
However, she also says that interest in cryptocurrencies in Russia has declined over the past few years. However, she adds that many still strongly believe in this perspective and that it could be "creating a system of private money without government intervention."
2019 – Year of CBDC
Central bank digital currencies (CBDC) began to receive significant attention following Facebook's announcement of their stablecoin called Pound .
Earlier this year, the social media tycoon announced that its digital asset would be used for global payments and would be provided with “a reserve of assets designed to give it intrinsic value.” Despite the fact that he met with a serious negative reaction from regulators and observers, the Facebook project may have accidentally started a new trend.
Russia's neighboring superpower, China, was one of the first to consider the CBDC. While the planned November launch did not materialize, the head of the People's Bank of China's Digital Currency Research Institute recently said that such a government-backed digital asset is in the works. He also assured that the public's need for anonymity would be met, but the coin would also protect against illegal activities such as money laundering.
Another example came from the EU recently. In cooperation with the European Central Bank, an official draft document was proposed for the future public digital currency.