Crypto Exchangers May Struggle to Meet Bank of Russia’s Speed Requirements, Experts Tell Kommersant

Crypto exchangers will find it difficult to ensure the transaction speed required by the Bank of Russia—comparable to settlements on the traditional securities market—experts told Kommersant. The situation is exacerbated by the obligation for exchangers to fulfill commitments before regulated trading begins.

The regulator’s logic is that client funds should not remain tied up with the exchanger while it searches for the necessary assets on the market or gathers liquidity. However, experts note that achieving operational speed similar to stock and bond trading is only possible through the coordinated work of the entire market infrastructure—the crypto exchanger, digital bank, and depository.

For smaller exchangers, this task appears challenging: they will have to build integration with banks and depositories from scratch. According to Alexander Peresichan, CEO of Technobit, such players currently lack access to ready-made infrastructure, meaning the costs for configuring processes and creating their own infrastructure will be significantly higher than those of banks.

Alexander Kretov, Head of Blockchain Technology Development at T-Bank, believes that difficulties will arise primarily with technologies—particularly regarding information security and the creation of robust infrastructure. As a result, the number of exchangers is expected to shrink, experts told the newspaper.

In practice, building an integrated system as desired by the Central Bank will be significantly easier for large financial ecosystems, primarily banks. According to the Bank of Russia’s registry, VTB, Sber, and T-Technologies have already received regulatory permission to operate as both crypto exchangers and digital depositories. IT company groups such as VEB3.0 and Cloud Infrastructure have also been added to the lists. These players already possess the necessary technological and organizational base, Kommersant reports.

Recently, the Central Bank published clarifications on the rules for the operation of digital depositories and crypto exchangers. Among other things, the clarifications state that exchangers must settle with clients simultaneously with the execution of the trade or immediately thereafter; delaying the execution of orders until the end of the business day is prohibited.