Russia's crypto scene is booming. The Kremlin's got their back.

Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are central to Russia's strategy for bypassing Western sanctions, enabling international trade despite financial restrictions.

The massive use of cryptocurrencies in Russia to trade with economic entities, also those hit by Western sanctions, demonstrates that the world can certainly exchange goods without dollars. Despite what die-hard conspiracy theorists claim – those who, to be clear, believe the dollar has almost supernatural powers compared to other currencies – the specific currency used in an economic exchange between two parties is entirely irrelevant. Moreover, there is absolutely no need to create a new one, especially if it's a common one.

The currencies that serve as a means of payment in foreign trade are already abundantly present within the planet's economic system. Every country has its own, and they are all equally capable of concluding an import/export transaction.

If anything, what is much more important, in technical terms, to conclude a transaction, are the payment systems, i.e., those metaphorical pipelines that allow the transfer of money between buyer and seller. The most well-known is the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, known to all as SWIFT, managed by the West.

It is indeed through the blocking of Russian banks on this payment system, which is part of a cooperative company based in Brussels, that the United States and the EU have managed to make their noted sanctions against Putin and his compatriots effective.

Let me add a personal remark, as an Italian living in Europe, aimed at those who have always viewed Italy and the entire European continent as mere US colonies, constantly ready to submit to the alleged transatlantic powers that, through organizations like NATO and the CIA, are said to govern the world. If the "Power" were based in Washington, do you think they would place the "red button"—which, in terms of blocking money flows, represents the atomic bomb for armies—in the hands of bankers in Europe?

Let's be serious and stop believing in fairy tales once and for all. If today the Russian central bank and, in turn, its banking system, cannot access their dollar and euro reserves, in what constitutes a real theft of money, those who made it effective with a simple "click" are in a building in Brussels, not in a glass office in Washington. So, let's stop having fantasies about the idea that, for the media, politicians, and various conspiracy theorists, the True Power, which commands us, for the sake of the script, must necessarily have its seat in the United States. Power is right next to us and takes the form of all those institutional figures who have the task/power to decide our lives.

Having digressed, let's return to the topic of the article. A year ago, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov announced that his department intended to launch the use of cryptocurrencies as a payment method for international trade, specifying that countries that "want to do business" with Moscow could pay in cryptocurrencies if they found this advantageous for them.

In his year-end speech a year ago, the minister declared on the national channel Rossiya-24:

"We do not want to fix contracts in dollars or euros. But to use crypto, at least with those countries that are ready to have commercial relations with us, as a possible contractual tool… Why not?"

He then added:

"If we use cryptocurrencies as [tools] for our cross-border payments, we must make them convenient for those participating in economic activities with foreign countries"

It is clear that faced with sanctions, Russia has found itself needing a payment system immune to interference. Not so much for trade with those countries belonging to the BRICS-plus area, with which it is conducting business in the simplest way through national currencies and using its own payment systems; but with private commercial partners residing in sanctioning countries, such as the United States and the eurozone.

Even thinking on a smaller scale, imagine how many Italians, with both commercial and affectionate relationships, found themselves in extreme difficulty with the arrival of sanctions, unable to send money to their children studying in Russia or residing in Putin's country because of their Russian mother.

For many of them, Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies were a lifeline!

As Evgeny Shatov, partner at Capital Lab, points out, Bitcoin is ready today to play a central role in Russia's economic strategy, offering both a shield against sanctions and a tool for cross-border trade.

It is precisely the fact of not depending on any central bank payment systems, the characteristic that unites Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, which makes these tools fully meet the needs of the Russian economy and those in the collective West who find it convenient to trade with them. Let's not forget, that sanctions have made many victims in Europe and Italy, starting with those who exported to Putin's country, and ending with the tourism sector, now dry of Russian presence and rubles.

The Russian finance minister, in recent days, has openly recognized the radical change in the way Russia conducts foreign trade today. The legislative changes introduced by his government in 2024 have legalized cross-border payments in cryptocurrency, and Russian companies are now using Bitcoin to circumvent financial restrictions.

Of course, despite the evidence of the massive use that Russians and their commercial partners make of Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies remain highly speculative financial assets, but in the face of a government that, through its minister, declares itself ready to "make them (cryptos) convenient for those participating in economic activities with foreign countries"—the matter takes on a completely different value and meaning.

A government that has a monopoly on its currency, as is the case with the Kremlin, is fully capable of stabilizing the value of cryptos in the world, or in the case, also of protecting its economic entities from potential losses resulting from sudden drops in the value of their crypto reserves.

This is certainly not the way a sovereign state would wish to put into practice, but in the face of the blindness of certain actions by Western leaders, which ultimately have the greatest impact on their own people, the Kremlin instead shows that it wants to support its economy by every means.