Russia's Crypto Ban May Impact Price, Yet Not as Severely as in China and US, Coingecko COO Says

WASHINGTON (Sputnik), Ekaterina Chukaeva - A ban on cryptocurrencies in Russia proposed by the Central Bank may impact the price but probably not as much as compared to a ban in China or the United States, Bobby Ong, co-founder and COO of Coingeckо, told Sputnik.

"BTC [bitcoin] price is largely dictated by macro movements these days, especially US Fed [Federal Reserve System] decisions. A ban in Russia may impact the price but probably not as large compared to a ban in China or the US", Ong said.

He added that cryptocurrencies will continue to progress globally outside Russia.

"Russia will stand to lose as companies and talent will be forced to relocate out of the country, depriving the country of tax revenues", he said.

The future of crypto in Russsia will depend a lot on the final details of the crypto ban or clampdown in the country, Ong said, using the example of China which has banned crypto multiple times but with successive each ban "getting increasingly more onerous".

"The latest ban in China has practically shut off crypto to most retail users and also removed the crypto mining industry away from China. Previous bans in China were not as stringent - exchanges could still operate in China and miners were still operating freely", he explained.

Meanwhile, reacting to Russia's move, the largest crypto exchange Binance said that it was ready for a dialogue with Russia on the proposed regulation of cryptocurrencies. Binance is open to dialogue and discussion about protecting the interests of good Russian crypto users and takes its compliance obligations very seriously and is committed to working with regulators to shape policies that protect users, encourage innovation, and move the industry forward, the exchange's spokesperson said.

Earlier this week, Russia's Central Bank published a consultation report on cryptocurrencies, in which it put forward a number of proposals for regulating this sphere in Russia. The Bank of Russia proposes to legally prohibit the use of the infrastructure of the Russian financial market for any operations with cryptocurrencies. It also wants to ban the issuance, organisation of circulation, and exchange of cryptocurrencies in Russia, as well as their mining.