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Russian financial authorities don’t see threat from use of crypto-currencies

"So far we decided just to watch carefully how it is developing," Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseyev said

MOSCOW, January 12. /TASS/. Russia’s Central Bank and the Federal Financial Monitoring Service do not see any threats from use of crypto-currencies, Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseyev told reporters on Thursday.

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"So far we decided just to watch carefully how it is developing. We decided that the Central Bank and the Federal Financial Monitoring Service should monitor cryptocurrency for Russia's economic security. So far these agencies believe that there is nothing critical in it. That means they understand that they (threats) may appear in the future, but now they do not exist," he said.

Bitcoin that was launched in January 2009 remains the best-known cryptocurrency in the world. Recently, however, its position started to deteriorate after legal restrictions were imposed on its use in a number of countries.

Bitcoin as a virtual currency is an online software code that is not regulated by any country or a bank supervision authority across the world. One Bitcoin’s feature is that it can guarantee the complete anonymity of an individual or a group of individuals making purchases. Virtual currencies are accepted for payment in more than 60,000 online stores globally.

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