Vladimir Putin declares: "Bitcoin cannot be banned!"

Russian President Vladimir Putin made a high-profile statement on Bitcoin today at the "Russia Calling!" investment forum.

When discussing the threat of the next US President Donald Trump to punish BRICS nations that turn away from the US dollar with tariffs of 100 percent, he also mentioned Bitcoin.

He emphasized that Bitcoin is an alternative that is gaining ground because the US dollar is losing influence - and that Bitcoin cannot be banned.

Putin continued by explaining that Russia has been put in a position to reposition itself because of the sanctions.

We have never refused to use the dollar. We were denied its use. As I said, we fought for something, and that then led to problems. And now we have to think about what to do next.
Vladimir_Putin

In his speech, Vladimir Putin pointed out what he believes to be the general problems of the US dollar system. He explained that the USA consumes more than it produces and pays for this with its currency, which has the status of the world's reserve currency.

Using the dollar as the world's currency gives the US a lot of money. [...] This means that they consume more than they produce, which is very important. Because thanks to the dollar, they continue to exploit other economies in the world for their own benefit. Many people don't think about this, but it's important.
Vladimir_Putin

However, Putin also defended Donald Trump when he pointed out that he had not been the president of the USA for the past few years, during which some things have changed. After all, when US government bonds held by Russia were frozen in response to the invasion of Ukraine, Joe Biden was leading the world's largest economy.

Nevertheless, he denounced the United States' overconfidence in the US dollar and pointed out that even US allies were reducing their US dollar or euro reserves.

Even countries that are allies of the USA are reducing their currency reserves in dollars and euros. Over the last ten years, the decline has been around 13 percent.
Vladimir_Putin

In the face of Western sanctions, it is only natural that Russia is looking for alternative forms of money for international trade. Recently, the nation reopened itself to the crypto sector and mining. This was also about having a means for cross-border payments - Blocktrainer.de reported.

According to a report by Reuters, cryptocurrencies, namely the US dollar stablecoin USDT, have been in use in Russian-Chinese trade for some time. However, the BRICS nations have not yet bet on Bitcoin itself on a large scale - at least not publicly.

Some time ago, Russia - like China at present - took a restrictive approach to Bitcoin and the like - in January 2022, the Russian Central Bank proposed a general ban on the use of cryptocurrencies.

The fact that Putin now apparently recognizes that Bitcoin cannot be banned is a further indication that a rethink has taken place at the Russian leadership level. It is unclear to what extent Donald Trump's announcement to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve plays a role in this.

However, Putin also mentioned that relying on alternatives could jeopardize the supremacy of the US.

But if we see that the use of the dollar is reduced, if they do it themselves, they will undermine the basis of their own economic dominance.
_{Vladimir Putin}

Further developments in the global monetary system and what role Bitcoin will play in it should be exciting to watch. At the moment, it looks like not only the US is recognizing the potential of Bitcoin, but also the BRICS nations, which originally had plans to create their own trading currency.