Russia’s finance ministry suggests creation of ruble stablecoin post-Tether ban

Russia should be eyeing its own fiat-backed stablecoins, a senior finance ministry official has said.

According to a Reuters report on April 16, Russia should unveil its own stablecoins after recent events related to the popular U.S. dollar pegged stablecoin Tether (USDT). If launched, these stablecoins could be pegged on other currencies.

The incident in question relates to reports that USDT issuer Tether blocked Russia-linked digital wallets belonging to a local crypto exchange that came under sanctions from the European Union.

Osman Kabaloev, the deputy head of the Finance Ministry’s financial policy department, says Russia should be looking at “internal tools” in light of the blockage. In comments on Wednesday, Kabaloev said:

“The recent blockage makes us think that we need to consider creating internal tools similar to USDT, possibly pegged to other currencies.” 

Tether blocked USDT wallets belonging to Garantex, a local Russian crypto exchange, in early March 2025, freezing $28 million in USDT. Garantex briefly suspended all of its services amid the fallout. In a post on Telegram responding to the blockage, the exchange declared:

“Tether has entered the war against the Russian crypto market and blocked our wallets worth over 2.5 billion rubles… Please note that all USDT held in Russian wallets is now under threat. As always, we are the first, but not the last.”

In early April, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, through its Office of Foreign Assets Control, flagged Garantex as facilitating transactions for designated terrorist entity Houthi. OFAC imposed sanctions on eight addresses on the exchange.

The remarks from the Russian finance ministry official come as stablecoins become increasingly popular across the payments ecosystem. It also comes amid growing regulatory focus on stablecoins – from across the EU via the Markets in Crypto Assets rules to new stablecoin bills currently before lawmakers in the United States. 

Significantly, Russian companies have reportedly looked at cryptocurrencies for payments amid sanctions. Moscow supports the use of crypto in international payments, with this among some of the crypto-friendly developments in the country.