{"id":1571147,"date":"2025-09-11T10:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T14:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1571147"},"modified":"2025-09-11T10:30:00","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T14:30:00","slug":"belarus-president-urges-banks-to-expand-crypto-use-as-sanctions-bite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/belarus-president-urges-banks-to-expand-crypto-use-as-sanctions-bite\/1571147\/","title":{"rendered":"Belarus President Urges Banks To Expand Crypto Use As Sanctions Bite"},"content":{"rendered":"

Belarus President Urges Banks To Expand Crypto Use As Sanctions Bite<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Stephen Katte via CoinTelegraph.com,<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has reportedly pushed the country\u2019s banks to expand how they use crypto, admitting that sanctions have greatly impacted the economy.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Lukashenko told the heads of Belarus\u2019 central and commercial banks in a meeting that the use of digital tokens needs to be expanded, the state-owned Belarusian Telegraph Agency\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the past five years, the national economy, and with it the Belarusian banking sector, have faced unprecedented challenges,\u201d Lukashenko said. \u201cThe government and the National Bank have been given corresponding instructions. Now, act.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lukashenko\u2019s latest push comes days after he\u00a0told lawmakers<\/a>\u00a0to create transparent rules for the country\u2019s cryptocurrency market on Friday, as the country\u2019s economy has\u00a0declined<\/a>\u00a0due to shrinking exports under broad EU and US sanctions for supporting Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

President Alexander Lukashenko told banks to expand crypto usage after telling lawmakers to develop rules for the sector. Source:\u00a0<\/em>YouTube\u00a0<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Due to their anonymous and decentralized nature, cryptocurrencies have been used among other methods to help countries, most notably Russia and North Korea,\u00a0evade sanctions<\/a>\u00a0and conduct trade.<\/p>\n

Payments via Belarusian crypto exchanges could top $3 billion\u00a0\u00a0<\/h2>\n

The total number of\u00a0crypto users<\/a>\u00a0in Belarus is expected to surpass more than 855,000 by 2026, out of a population of 9.1 million, while user penetration is projected to increase to 9.57%\u00a0according<\/a>\u00a0to online data platform Statista.<\/p>\n

Lukashenko claims all the exchanges operating in the country, such as Binance, OKX and KuCoin, are on track to possibly double in external payments by the end of the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, cryptocurrency-based transactions are more active than ever, and their role in facilitating payments is growing,\u201d<\/strong> he said.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIn the seven months of this year, the volume of external payments through cryptocurrency exchanges amounted to $1.7 billion. According to expert estimates, it may reach $3 billion by the end of the year.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

In September last year, Lukashenko\u00a0signed<\/a>\u00a0a law banning individuals from buying and selling crypto outside of\u00a0Belarusian exchanges<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Another push for digital payment systems<\/h2>\n

Lukashenko also told the banking leaders to increase the adoption of digital payment systems, after making a \u201cstart with QR codes,\u201d and to launch an instant payment system by the end of the year.<\/p>\n

VTB Bank Belarus, a Russian majority state-owned bank, started offering its customers payment options using QR codes connected directly to the online payment system ERIP.<\/p>\n

Lukashenko said the country\u2019s digital strategy must prioritize adopting biometric technologies, establish a dedicated IT company to reduce reliance on external service providers and integrate artificial intelligence-based solutions.<\/p>\n

\u201cBanks must try to make the most of modern technology. Digitalization is not an end in itself; it must deliver tangible economic results,\u201d<\/strong><\/em> he added.<\/p>\n

Belarus crypto attitude<\/h2>\n

Belarus\u2019s attitude toward crypto has been somewhat mixed in the past.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In March, Lukashenko\u00a0instructed his energy minister<\/a>\u00a0to begin developing the country\u2019s\u00a0cryptocurrency mining\u00a0<\/a>industry because the country had an excess of electricity.<\/p>\n

In the summer of 2023, the Belarusian Ministry was\u00a0working on banning<\/a>\u00a0peer-to-peer transactions in crypto, such as Bitcoin.<\/p>\n

However, the country also legalized crypto transactions in 2018 and allowed selling, exchanging, and mining.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nThu, 09\/11\/2025 – 06:30<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/crypto\/belarus-president-urges-banks-expand-crypto-use-sanctions-bite<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Belarus President Urges Banks To Expand Crypto Use As Sanctions Bite Authored by Stephen Katte via CoinTelegraph.com, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has reportedly pushed the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1571148,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1571147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbimBl-6AJ5","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/09\/019931ad-7da8-72e9-9408-c9bbe8da-3miYTL.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1571147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1571147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1571147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1571148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1571147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1571147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1571147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}