Technical difficulty “freeze” is the moat of decentralization—looks like the Russians also want to push their own Ruble stablecoin.

According to Bits Media, Ivan Chebeskov, Deputy Finance Minister of Russia, said that if foreign stablecoins are allowed to enter Russia’s regulated trading markets, related assets in users’ wallets could face the risk of being frozen—especially U.S.-dollar stablecoins such as USDT and USDC. He said that there have already been cases where Russian legal entities had their U.S.-dollar stablecoins frozen, while BTC and ETH have not yet seen similar freezes, mainly because it is technically difficult to freeze them directly. Chebeskov said that Russia is discussing dedicated stablecoin legislation, and the regulated market will prioritize stablecoins pegged to the ruble and the currencies of “friendly countries.” The Central Bank of Russia will retain the power to adjust the list of approved stablecoins.