Russia should have own stablecoins, finance ministry official says

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia should develop its own stablecoins pegged to other currencies after Russia-linked digital wallets holding the popular USDT stablecoin were blocked last month, a senior Finance Ministry official said on Wednesday.

Dollar-pegged stablecoins, which are a type of cryptocurrency designed to maintain a constant value, have ballooned in recent years as they helped to move funds between different cryptocurrencies or into cash.

Russian regulators have allowed the experimental use of cryptocurrencies in international payments, which have become more difficult due to Western sanctions. Before the blockage, USDT was popular among Russian firms as a payment tool.

"The recent blockage makes us think that we need to consider creating internal tools similar to USDT, possibly pegged to other currencies," the deputy head of the ministry's financial policy department, Osman Kabaloev, said.

Russian crypto exchange Garantex said on March 6 that USDT creator Tether had blocked digital wallets on its platform holding more than 2.5 billion roubles ($30.12 million), forcing it to suspend operations days after coming under EU sanctions.

The head of Russia's central bank Elvira Nabiullina, who opposes the use of cryptocurrencies in domestic payments, said that Russian firms are actively testing international cryptocurrency payments as part of the experiment.

($1 = 82.9955 roubles)

(Reporting by Elena Fabrichnaya, writing by Gleb Bryanski; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)