MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Pavel Durov, the founder of the VKontakte social networking site and Telegram messaging app, has said he believes that cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin provide the global financial system with a chance to escape from US hegemony.
"For the first time in 70 years, the global financial system has a chance to escape from the hegemony of the United States, which imposed its national currency as a reserve on the whole world and since then, in fact, has been collecting tribute from all the countries paying its debts with endlessly printed dollars and buying assets worldwide with them," Durov wrote on his Vkontakte page on Monday.
"Instead of taking the chance to make the world more balanced and together with Japan and other Asian countries to recognize the status of new cryptocurrencies, which are replacing dollar, the Russian government is voicing ideas 'to ban and restrict [use of cryptocurrencies].' There is an impression that Bitcoin imposed sanctions on Russia," Durov added.
Earlier in the day, Russian Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseev said that cryptocurrencies should be regulated as a financial asset that only qualified investors should be allowed to buy and sell.
