A top Russian lawmaker, Andrey Lugovoy, has shared an exciting opinion about the crypto industry, which contradicts the belief of many regulators in the world.
Lugovoy, who is a member of the working group on Russia crypto regulation, in a recent statement, argued that the majority of crypto transactions are not used for illegal activities. He continued that the belief that crypto transactions are used for illicit transactions is, at best, a myth.
Speaking with the Parlamentskaya Gazeta, Lugovoy revealed that he decided based on the transaction volume of some of the largest crypto exchanges in Russia and in the world, with less than 5% of their transactions being illegal.
Using this data as a premise, he argued that even for the few cases of illicit activities, there are effective tools designed to identify wallets that are employed for illegal purposes effectively.
One of these tools, according to him, is those offered by blockchain analytics firms Chainalysis and Crystal.
According to experts, cash is used in illegal activities in the amount of 11 to 13 % of the turnover.
Interestingly, Lugovoy’s view is in tandem with a Chainalysis report that revealed that though illegal addresses received roughly $14 billion in 2021, they only represented just 0.15% of the total transactions in the year.
Per the report,
The growth of legitimate cryptocurrency usage far outpaces the growth of criminal usage, illicit activity’s share of cryptocurrency transaction volume has never been lower.
Russia and Crypto Adoption
Russia has faced severe economic sanctions over its activities in Ukraine which has led authorities in the Western world to believe that the country could use crypto to evade sanctions.
However, the crypto community has argued against this saying that the Russia would be unable to evade the sanctions using crypto.
On the other hand, some Russian government agencies have kicked against the central bank’s decision to ban the space. Instead, they have urged the authorities to regulate the space and not ban it.