While reiterating that cryptocurrency deserves to have a place in global currency and transactions, Russian President Vladimir Putin believes that the digital currency market is too high-risk and unstable to be used for settling oil contracts.
Russia, for years, has been trying to lower its dependency on the US dollar, which makes up over 80% of international transactions around the world. Some companies switched to euros.
“It’s too early to talk about that for now because cryptocurrency can of course be a payment unit, but it is very unstable. To transfer funds from one place to another, yes, but I think it’s still premature to trade, especially to trade energy resources,” said Putin.
The remarks were made in an interview with CNBC that was published on the Kremlin’s website Thursday.
Although it is legal in Russia to invest in cryptocurrency, Moscow has made it illegal this year to conduct payments for goods and services with the currency.
“It has a place to exist and can be used as a means of payment, of course, but trade in oil, say, or other primary materials and energy sources – still, it seems to me, it is a bit early to talk about this,” Putin said.
source : almayadeen.net
