Russia Set to Start Digital Rouble Trials From 2022

The Russian Central Bank today announced the trials of National CBDC or Digital Rouble from 2022. The announcement was made by the head of the central bank Elvira Nabiullina, This comes as the second major news from Russia today after the State Duma approved crypto as a form of payment under a contractual basis.

The Russian government had earlier announced its plans to begin the testing phase in 2022 and today’s announcement confirms the start of the testing phase. Russia has been working on crypto regulations for quite some time now and compared to many western counterparts, it was among the early countries to regulate cryptocurrencies based on existing property laws back in 2019. The government finally passed the official regulations last year and they came into effect in January this year.

In terms of developing national sovereign digital currencies, China is currently leading everyone else with its digital yuan being under widespread trial phase awaiting a launch very soon. Apart from China, the US, UK, Germany, Switzerland, and South Korea are also actively working on the development of their sovereign CBDCs.

China’s Progress in CBDC Development Has Forced Others to Accelerate

China started working towards its national digital currency back in 2014 itself, a time when most of the other countries saw cryptocurrencies as either fad or were not aware of it. However, the growing influence of crypto assets in the financial sector has made governments form regulations around digital assets as well as focus on the launch of a state-backed digital asset that would act as a stable coin.

China’s progress in the field has made many European countries as well as the US accelerate their work towards CBDC. The US has deemed it as a potential threat to their financial sovereignty. While most of the countries are still in the development phase China’s digital yuan was completed back in 2019 itself and it is being widely tested in the form of government subsidies and airdrops in different provinces.