The Central Bank of Russia has disclosed that the total value of transactions on its cryptocurrency exchanges in 2023 was close to $52 billion.
The bank claims that it may “potentially” link more than $51.67 billion in Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) transactions on “large crypto exchanges” to Russian nationals.
Nevertheless, the majority of Russians do not even trade coins on well-known cryptocurrency exchanges, according to the Central Bank itself. This implies that the “actual” number might be significantly greater.
Is the P2P Market Dwarfed by the Russian Crypto Exchange? Crypto assertions were made by the Central Bank in their annual report for the 2023 fiscal year. The writers of the report wrote:
“An examination of the cryptoasset market suggests that Russian involvement in it may be quite considerable. By the end of 2023, there were 4.78 trillion rubles worth of Bitcoin and Ethereum transactions on the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges, some of which may have been made by Russians.”
The peer-to-peer (P2P) market has emerged as “the main channel for acquiring crypto assets in Russia,” according to the bank’s estimations.
According to the bank’s earlier statement, “among Russians,” the average monthly volume of P2P transactions climbed “by more than 50%” “in the first half of 2023.”
How Is Crypto Exchange Data Calculated by the Russian Central Bank?
The bank stated that calculations produced with the blockchain analytics tool Prograchniy Blockchain, which translates to “Transparent Blockchain,” were the basis for its exchange-related statistics.
The nation’s anti-money laundering organization, Rosfinmonitoring, is the creator of the tool. The tool was created in 2021 by Rosfinmonitoring, which asserts that it can track citizens’ transactions over several blockchain networks.
Government users can get data on the source and recipient of crypto asset transactions through this facility.
Nearly $300 million worth of cryptocurrency trades are made available “every day” on the country’s P2P market, according to a June 2023 assertion made by a Russian IT company.
Meanwhile, the bank reported in December of last year that it had observed a “drop” in the amount of Russians making purchases and sales of cryptocurrency on well-known international exchange platforms.
April 2024, Cryptoniteuae
