Belarus is establishing a working group to eradicate illegal transactions using virtual currencies, the country’s monetary authority has announced.
The regulator said the new agency will target unlicensed coin payments and cross-border transfers and continue to support the legal cryptocurrency market.
Belarus begins curbing illicit virtual currency transactions
The former Soviet state’s main financial regulator, the National Bank of Belarus (NBRB), has formed a special committee to combat illegal cryptocurrency transactions.
The decision was made after a meeting chaired by Deputy Governor Alexander Egorov with representatives of Belarusian banks and government-approved crypto companies.
The main theme of their discussion was preventing fraudulent payment transactions and illegal transfers of funds abroad through crypto platforms licensed to operate in Belarus.
RBC reported on Tuesday that participants concluded that a comprehensive solution is needed to effectively combat existing programs in the shadow economy.
Quoted by the Russian business press, the Vice-Chairman of the NBRB Board emphasized:
“The virtual currency market is growing and the National Bank supports its further development, so approaches to solving the problem of fraud need to be developed through joint efforts.”
At a meeting held on Monday, Belarusian bankers and fintech experts identified ways to combat illegal virtual currency circulation. The financial regulator said in a statement that the creation of a dedicated working group was one of the agreed measures.
Crackdown begins amid efforts to update regulations
Belarus was one of the first countries in Eastern Europe to regulate cryptocurrency trading. This was made possible in 2017 with the presidential decree “On the Development of the Digital Economy” signed by long-time head of state Alexander Lukashenko. This document legalized mining and trade.
President Lukashenko’s decree, which came into force the following year, requires companies that handle “digital tokens” to register with the Belarus High-Tech Park (HTP) hub. Its special legal system provides various benefits and tax exemptions to companies in different sectors of the IT industry.
In September 2024, the Minsk financial authorities prohibited individuals and individual entrepreneurs registered as HTP residents from buying and selling cryptocurrencies on exchanges outside Belarus.
The ban, imposed amid concerns over capital flight from the country, was also said to be intended to prevent the export of “funds stolen from national bank accounts” exchanged for cryptocurrencies on foreign crypto trading platforms.
Cryptocurrencies are growing in popularity among Belarusian citizens and businesses, but sanctions similar to those imposed on close ally Russia severely limit Belarus’s access to traditional financial channels, especially for foreign trade.
In September, Lukashenko himself announced that cross-border crypto payments in Belarus had reached a record $1.7 billion in the first seven months of 2025, while also citing estimates that the amount could reach $3 billion by the end of December. He also admitted that:
“Cryptocurrency-based transactions are more active today than ever before, and their role in facilitating payments is growing.”
As if to prove his point, Russian e-commerce giant Wildberries, one of the region’s largest online retailers, last month began accepting cryptocurrency payments in Belarus using the services of HTP-registered local exchange Whitebird.
Cryptopolitan reported that just days before making the remarks, the president had ordered government officials to speed up updates to the country’s crypto regulations, stressing that the industry is evolving faster than the legal framework.
In August, NBRB Governor Roman Golovchenko revealed that the regulator was already drafting amendments that would allow Belarus to ensure “a breakthrough in the use of virtual currencies.”
The central bank’s chief executive indicated that Minsk authorities aim to expand the domestic regulated cryptocurrency market, calling the issue “very important.”
Although more reluctant than Belarus to allow the circulation of cryptocurrencies within its economy, neighboring Russia has been quite active in using coins to circumvent sanctions in international payments.
Discover more from Earlybirds Invest
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.