Rey Kostin - the head of VTB, Russia's second-largest bank - has compared cryptocurrency mining with counterfeiting, major Russian news agency TASS reports Monday, Feb. 4.
"I am not a big fan of the crypto ruble. To me, this is a kind of counterfeiting. A person who is mining is similar to someone who is printing money. During the initial euphoria, everyone thought that everything can be paid in crypto starting tomorrow, but it hasn't happened so far."
Kostin believes there will be a relatively small market niche for cryptocurrencies in the foreseeable future, for as the global financial industry is getting more and more transparent, offshore holdings are gradually disappearing.
The banker believes that there is no relevant way to regulate the crypto area in the same way that the traditional markets are regulated.
If cryptocurrencies become dominant on the financial markets, it can be dangerous, Kostin concluded.
The board chairman at VTB, Olga Dergunova, does not share Kostin's stance.
In June 2018, Dergunova claimed that VTB was potentially ready to work with digital assets.
As Cointelegraph previously reported, the demand for cryptocurrencies in Russia is allegedly very high, but the banks are not able to meet it due to the lack of clearly defined regulations.
During a closed-door meeting in September 2018, several Russian banks including Sberbank, Alfa-Bank and VTB reportedly expressed their interest in crypto.
Russia's cryptocurrency and blockchain legislation, which had passed its first reading stage in March 2018, has since been sent back for further edits.
Head of Russia's Second Largest Bank Compares Crypto Mining to Counterfeiting
Published on Feb 5, 2019
by Cointele | Published on Coinage
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