Russia is said to work on clearing platforms for stablecoin settlements

As a way to avoid using U.S. dollars and euros, Russia is collaborating with some friendly nations to develop clearing platforms for cross-border settlements in stablecoins, according to a Tuesday report from Russian news agency TASS. The countries were not identified in the report. Earlier, Sberbank (OTC:AKSJF), Russia's largest lender, reportedly started lending in Chinese yuan as Moscow seeks to bolster its financial system in countries that haven't forced sanctions on it. "We offer mutually acceptable tokenized instruments that will be used on these platforms, which are essentially clearing platforms that we are currently developing with these countries. Stablecoins can be pegged to some generally recognized instrument, for example, gold, the value of which is clear and observable for all participants," said Alexey Moiseyev, Russia's deputy finance minister, as quoted by TASS. The move would come after President Vladimir Putin in mid-July signed a law banning digital payments across Russia, underscoring the country's skepticism of the emerging space. And since last year, Russia's central bank has sought to prohibit crypto investments due to financial stability risks. Nevertheless, while Russia has been sanctioned because of its lingering invasion of Ukraine, "it is impossible to do without cross-border settlements in cryptocurrency," TASS quoted the Finance Ministry and the Bank of Russia. Towards the end of January, Putin...