Russia debuts cross-border payments in Tether stablecoin

One of the first cross-border payment platforms in Russia has officially announced its launch and says it will be facilitating local legal entities to process international settlements in cryptocurrency.

Exved, a local digital settlement platform — which describes itself as a “digital counterparty search system” — announced the launch on Dec. 7, stating that Russian importers and exporters can now use its business-to-business (B2B) solution to simplify the process of “foreign exchange operations and foreign economic activity.”

The Exved platform specifically allows one to proceed with cross-border transactions using Tether (USDT) stablecoin alongside the offshore ruble and the U.S. dollar, the announcement reads.

“The platform works exclusively with legal entities in compliance with Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing measures,” Exved emphasized, adding:

“The goal of the project is to help Russian legal entities make cross-border payments without intermediaries at minimum market rates.”

According to the announcement, Exved’s launch has involved major industry partners, including InDeFi Bank, which launched the decentralized crypto ruble project last year.

InDeFi Smart Bank co-founder and CEO Sergey Mendeleev told Cointelegraph on Dec. 7 that Exved’s internal mechanics have been tested and approved by the Central Bank and the Federal Financial Monitoring Service of the Russian Federation.

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“The project itself, of course, is generally a private initiative; it is intended, first of all, to show people that they can pay 2-3% instead of 6-7%, and to offer specific mechanisms for implementing payment requests,” Mendeleev said.

As previously reported, the Russian central bank and the country’s Ministry of Finance reached an agreement allowing cross-border settlements in cryptocurrencies in September 2022.