Speaking to the press during the International Conference "Days of Finance" in Astana, held in the capital of Kazakhstan this July 4, the CEO of the largest state bank of Russia Herman Gref said:
"Governments would give up their centralized role in the creation of fiduciary currency, but regulate cryptocurrencies in their respective legislations"
In these statements to the press during the conference Gref repeated on many occasions during his speeches, the comments he has made on the future role of crypto-active in the world economy.
"Do I see a perspective of global use of cryptocurrencies as an alternative to fiat money? ... I do not see it and I've already said it every time I could ... I do not think the state is ready to give up its centralized role in issuing fiat currency to some other decentralized institutions like Bitcoin or Ether for example ".
The words of Gref widely reflect the metamorphosis that the state is currently experiencing as the regulator of cryptocurrencies and above all in Russia.
This week the deadline is met for the new legislation to be applied and transformed into the new law that converts cryptocurrencies as a separate class of financial asset, more specifically a "financial future", and of course devoid of currency status of legal tender.
Sberbank has nevertheless begun to increase its interaction with cryptography in the period prior to the entry into force of these regulations, revealing its plans to launch an investment fund based on cryptocurrencies in August 2018.
A week before the announcement to the bank the CEO would have announced to a local Kommersant media, his pessimism with technology:
"I recommend that nobody buy cryptoactive, at least clear that he likes to play in casinos."
These seemingly adverse actions between the statements of the CEO and the actions of the bank with the investment fund, coupled with the inevitable law that gives a character of financial asset but not currency to the cryptocurrencies, have put the position of Greff in the Public scrutiny, because it does not reflect the vision of Russia's largest state bank, that cryptocurrencies are here to stay.