Central Bank of Russia Warned Stock Exchanges

The Central Bank of Russia warned the stock exchanges. The bank told exchanges to be wary of crypto assets.

In an announcement released by the Central Bank of Russia, it was stated that exchanges should avoid listing ETFs, digital assets issued abroad, cryptocurrency price indices, crypto derivatives and securities. According to the bank, asset managers should also remove such securities from mutual fund portfolios and brokers should not offer such securities to unqualified investors. It was informed that this statement made by the central bank was designed to prevent investors from accessing products they could not understand. Regarding the issue, the Central Bank of Russia stated: “Cryptocurrencies and digital assets are characterized by high volatility, low transparency of pricing mechanisms, low liquidity, technological, regulatory and other specific risks. Purchasing investment products linked to them exposes people without experience and professional knowledge to a high risk of losing money.” In addition, it was especially underlined that this ban does not include issuing central bank digital currencies (CBDC) or digital assets issued under Russian law and registered with the Central Bank of Russia. On the other hand, it is also known that Russia is making progress in issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC). Russia is taking a new step on this issue and improving itself every day. In fact, former Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev explained the importance of the CBDC, saying that trust in state-backed digital currencies would be “immeasurably higher” than trust in public cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.