In the first half of 2022, there were about 200 such services, now there are 300-400 of them, says Artem Brudanin, head of cybersecurity at RTM Group.
The largest share among the services is accounted for by crypto exchanges, which allow you to sell real money for a digital analog. Another major market participant is companies which have business in the Russian Federation but sell their goods and services abroad;
One of the reasons for the increase in the number of companies that have started to consider accepting cryptocurrency payments was the introduction of sanctions against the Russian economy and a whole list of individuals. Companies most often use bitcoin, ether and stablecoins (USDT, USDC).
The Russian branch of the international human rights organization Transparency International found out that Russians most often use Tether USD steblecoins to send money abroad to circumvent sanctions.
It was Tether that Russians were buying up in late June during Yevgeny Prigozhin’s attempted armed rebellion. And the Bank of Russia said there are more citizens who use cryptocurrencies to store savings than those who use metal accounts and investment fund units.