Cryptocurrencies will not help Russia fight Western sanctions. Analysts of the Moody’s rating agency are sure of this, as they noted in their report, Russian media write..

Analysts pointed to the following problems: limited size and low liquidity of the cryptocurrency market in Russia; implementation by crypto exchanges of measures aimed at combating money laundering and terrorist financing; sanctions against individual sites and crypto exchanges.

What are the barriers to using cryptocurrencies:.

Limited size and low liquidity of the cryptocurrency market in Russia. On the exchange, the liquidity of the ruble / bitcoin pair is about $ 200 thousand. On over-the-counter trading services that are used to hide transactions, the so-called services, liquidity is about $30 million per day.. At the same time, the authors of the study note, according to the US Department of the Treasury, Russian financial institutions daily conduct international transactions in the amount of about $46 billion, 80% of them are made in US dollars..

Implementation by crypto exchanges of measures aimed at combating money laundering and terrorist financing. Regulated crypto exchanges must comply with anti-money laundering regulations to track illicit transactions, the report says: “A centralized digital asset marketplace with well-established due diligence and appropriate registration processes will be able to track and disable blacklisted accounts.. Once a transaction is flagged, law enforcement can track its history and follow its progress." Moody's cites this factor as another reason why sanctions evasion is limited..

Sanctions against some sites. On April 5, the US Department of the Treasury imposed sanctions against the largest darknet platform Hydra Market, which works for the Russian-speaking audience, and against the cryptocurrency exchange Garantex Europe OU. The latter is registered in Estonia, but, according to the US Treasury Department, it operated mainly from Moscow and St. Petersburg.

More than $100 million worth of transactions on this platform are linked to criminal activity and darknet markets, according to the agency.. The Ministry of Finance release also notes that approximately 86% of illegal bitcoins received by Russian virtual currency exchanges in 2019 came from Hydra..

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Earlier it was reported that the State Financial Monitoring Service revealed signs that Russia is using cryptocurrency to circumvent sanctions..