- According to the poll, most Russians (64%) have heard about bitcoin.
- Russians own nearly 17 million crypto wallets.
The Russian Public Opinion Research Center (Vtsiom) has released new research evaluating Russian individuals’ opinions towards crypto assets and operations amid continuous disputes on the future of digital currencies. Regarding the country’s crypto market, authorities have differences among regulators.
According to the results of a recent poll, Russians who have heard of cryptocurrencies have a split attitude on the newly proposed ban on digital asset transactions. A third of those who took the poll agree with the central bank’s recommendation, while others disagree.
According to the poll, most Russians (64%) have heard about bitcoin, and 17% have good knowledge of the cryptocurrency, an increase of four percentage points compared to the data from a 2017 survey. The share of those unaware of its existence has shrunk by 11 points to just 19%.
Regulation Instead of Ban Likely
Russians own nearly 17 million crypto wallets (to the Russian Association of Cryptoeconomics, Artificial Intelligence, and Blockchain (Racib). According to the head of the Russian State Duma financial market committee in December, Russian people have invested $5 trillion rubles (about $67 billion) in crypto.
Moscow has been obliged to control the market due to the rising popularity of cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin mining, trading, and issuance are among the activities that the Bank of Russia might ban because of concerns about its financial stability and the dangers to its population. According to reports, the government has planned to regulate, rather than ban, cryptocurrency activities.
