Russian Central Bank to Expand Digital Ruble Pilot in September
The Russian Central Bank has announced plans to significantly expand its digital ruble pilot in September, with the aim of reaching a much larger audience. According to Pravda, the new phase of the pilot will involve offering the digital ruble to real clients with real money starting from September 1.
The pilot was initially launched over a year ago, with around 600 selected individuals in 11 Russian cities participating. Since then, there has been limited expansion, with the integration of the Moscow Metro and a small group of large banks. However, the Central Bank has now stated its intention to include a second group of banks in its pilot network, although no specific timeframe has been provided. The ultimate goal is to roll out the digital ruble nationwide by the end of 2025.
Olga Skorobogatova, the First Deputy Governor of the Russian Central Bank, revealed that the bank has received a significant number of applications and requests from citizens and businesses across the country to use the digital ruble. She emphasized the real demand for expanding the project to all banks and a larger number of participants.
Skorobogatova expressed her belief that the digital ruble project will experience rapid development in the second half of 2024 and the following year. The Central Bank clarified that the pilot will be expanded to include 9,000 individuals and 1,200 legal entities later this year.
In terms of usage, the Central Bank reported that its commercial banking partners have facilitated around 19,000 peer-to-peer CBDC transactions so far. Additionally, pilot users have made approximately 6,000 payments with the digital ruble and executed 3,500 smart contract transactions.
It is worth noting that the Central Bank remains committed to banning crypto exchanges in Russia as part of its efforts to prevent tokens from entering the national economy.
