The CEO of Russia’s largest state-owned bank, Sberbank, Herman Gref, said he still could not foresee that governments would “give up their centralised role” in creating fiat currency as part of their comments on cryptocurrency.
During the Astana Finance Day conference, Sberbank CEO said he doesn’t believe the governments will give up fiat money
Talking to journalists during the international Astana Finance Days conference in Kazakhstan’s capital on July 4th, Herman Gref Sberbank repeated the comments he has made many times about the future role of cryptocurrency in the economy.
“Do I see a perspective of the global use of cryptocurrency as an alternative to fiduciary money? I don’t see it, and I said it many times,” said Herman Gref. “I don’t think the state is willing to cede its centralized role in issuing fiat currency to other decentralized institutions,” he added.
New cryptocurrency regulations in Russia will classify cryptos as separate digital assets
Gref’s words broadly reflect the ongoing metamorphosis of the regulatory status of cryptocurrency within Russia. This week is the deadline for new cryptocurrency regulation to become laws that will consolidate cryptos as a separate digital assets class devoid of legal tender status.
However, Sberbank has begun to increase its interactions with the cryptocurrencies market in the run-up to the new cryptocurrency regulation era, revealing last month its plans to launch a cryptocurrency-based mutual fund previous month.
Sberbank CEO compared cryptocurrency investments with gambling in a statement last week
A week earlier, however, Herman Gref, Sberbank CEO, had gone into the bass, telling local news station Kommersant that he “wouldn’t recommend [buying cryptocurrency] to anyone who didn’t like to play in a casino,” comparing cryptocurrency investments with gambling.
This vision of the Russian Sberbank CEO regarding the cryptocurrency is another evidence that cryptos are not doing very well in Russia.