From September 1, Russia legalised the use of cryptocurrencies to settle international trade accounts and wants to create an “experimental infrastructure” for such payments. India has at least $900 million stuck in unpaid dividends in Russian investments that are unable to be repatriated due to the sanctions faced by Russia. India has allowed the Chinese crypto exchange Binance to reopen shop after being fined ₹18.82 crore by the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU-IND) for violating local laws. These are unrelated pieces of news surely, but they swing by a common thread — the struggle to find a non-dollar regime for international transactions and the emerging role of a crypto-based system to do this that is not owned and controlled by any one country.
