Media: Russian authorities value citizens’ cryptocurrency holdings at more than $214 billion

Residents of Russia hold cryptocurrencies worth more than 16.5 trillion rubles ($214 billion at the time of writing), Bloomberg reports. According to the publication, authorities allegedly rely on this estimate when drafting plans to regulate the sector.

The figure equates to about 12% of the entire cryptocurrency market capitalization and about a third of the capitalization of Russian stock indices, the media noted.

The estimate is based on an analysis conducted last month of users’ IP addresses on the largest exchanges and other data, according to anonymous sources in the government and the Kremlin.

Estimates of Russians’ cryptocurrency holdings and the volume of operations with digital assets vary due to different methodologies.

The Bank of Russia, in its July survey of major banks, reported that the volume of residents’ operations with digital currencies annually is about $5 billion.

Anatoly Aksakov, head of the State Duma committee on the financial market, said that Russians invested 5 trillion rubles in the cryptocurrency market, but did not specify what these data were based on.

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