​Gazeta.Ru: Russia's Central Bank earns bonuses at the expense of cryptocurrencies

What’s new? Anton Bukov, the co-founder of 1inch, published a post on Twitter about why the Central Bank of the Russian Federation worries about cryptocurrencies every January. He explained that in the run-up to the annual bonus, which directly depends on the citation index, the Central Bank has been stirring controversy around the hot topic of cryptocurrency regulation in Russia. Information about this appeared in an already deleted post by Gazeta.Ru, which was cached by Telegram.

If you ever wondered why Central Bank of Russia care so much about cryptocurrencies every January - their annual bonus is approaching and it highly depends on citation index. See already deleted post of @GazetaRu but kindly cached by @telegram: https://t.co/0XA2hYmk8G pic.twitter.com/V0Q3kZM6q9— Anton Bukov 🦇🔊 ⚖️ (@k06a) January 20, 2022

What did the bank’s representative say? According to the publication’s source at the Bank of Russia, no information about the development of legislative initiatives to ban cryptocurrencies has appeared or been discussed at the Central Bank.

“In addition, the KPIs of some executives are made dependent on the citation index of a certain topic in the media. Perhaps someone just needs to raise that index, and the more controversial the issues are, the better for citation. Besides, we have the annual bonus coming up, now everyone is reporting on their results for the year,” said an unnamed Central Bank’s representative.

How did events develop? On the morning of January 20, the topic of a ban on cryptocurrencies in Russia caused a stir in the media. Bloomberg, based on information from anonymous sources, published the news that the Federal Security Service (FSB) convinced Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina to support a complete ban on cryptocurrencies and mining.

On the same day, the Central Bank presented a report on cryptocurrencies, the main message of which was to ban mining and digital assets in the Russian Federation, as well as to strengthen oversight of their turnover. A little later, Elizaveta Danilova, Director of the regulator’s Financial Stability Department, said that the Central Bank has no plans yet to ban citizens from owning cryptocurrencies.