Barter Smartplace — the first Russian NFT marketplace
In Russia, for a long time there was a skeptical attitude towards cryptocurrencies on the part of the authorities. When promising blockchain companies were founded in the legal field of the Russian Federation, it was difficult for them to compete with Western and Asian giants, and Russian-speaking developers initially preferred to work for foreign companies and attract investments from abroad. Barter Smartplace entered this market in a highly competitive environment as the first Russian NFT marketplace.
In January 2022, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation proposed to ban the issuance, circulation and mining of cryptocurrencies, but the Ministry of Finance and the FSB did not support a total ban on the industry. President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin noted the competitive advantages of mining in Russia. The head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, Alexander Shokhin, and a prominent economist, Sergei Glazyev, spoke in favor of the early legalization of cryptocurrencies in Russia.
One of the reasons for this “sudden” sympathy for cryptocurrencies is unfriendly relations with the West. Russian companies are highly dependent on the dollar monetary system and Western financial institutions, and therefore suffer significantly from sanctions, accompanied by blocking of assets in foreign banks and the failure of payment systems such as Mastercard, Visa, SWIFT. However, Russia has already created a “safety cushion” for the exchange of financial messages between banks and its own payment system for bank cards.
Crypto War
The conflict associated with the situation in Ukraine has a strong impact on the crypto industry. This fact provoked pressure on Russian users of foreign crypto services:
- On February 27, the Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, Mikhail Fedorov, called on crypto exchanges around the world to block the accounts of Russian users.
- Crypto exchange Kuna has turned off all ruble pairs, and also banned the deposit and withdrawal of the ruble.
- Cryptocurrency trading platform CEX.IO announced the termination of registration of users from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, as well as all trading and deposit activities from these countries.
- The Ukrainian NFT marketplace DMarket banned the registration of citizens of the Russian Federation and Belarus and began to block their accounts, the same was done by the Ukrainian crypto exchange Qmall.
- Large mining pool ETH FlexPool has stopped serving Russian IP addresses.
- The well-known crypto exchange Kraken also does not exclude the possibility of blocking the accounts of Russians if there is a corresponding legal requirement.
Current situation will be a strong incentive for users in Russia, Belarus and other friendly CIS countries to use decentralized and domestic crypto exchanges. Barter Smartplace provides all the possibilities for this.
Paradoxical Growth
The current situation is becoming beneficial for Russian blockchain companies.
Firstly, in a situation of sanctions pressure, the Russian authorities saw more benefits than dangers in cryptocurrencies, since they allow them to circumvent the sanctions restrictions imposed by Western financial institutions.
Secondly, it is highly likely that Western crypto-exchanges and NFT marketplaces will continue to block the accounts of users of the Russian Federation, Belarus and other CIS countries friendly to Russia. In this case, this will be a great opportunity for Russian blockchain companies to expand their audience and focus on the development of domestic services for a local audience.
It may seem cynical, but for Barter Smartplace, the escalation of the conflict is a great opportunity for growth. We offer not only low fees and rich functionality, but also personal neutrality. We are not going to block users for political reasons. We position ourselves outside of politics as a true decentralized application and are happy to accept users from any country, providing one of the best services for trading currencies, tokens and goods (digital and real).
Artists from Russia and the CIS rely only on Western sites that can decide to block the accounts of citizens from the Russian Federation and Belarus. If the lockdown continues, Russian users risk losing all their NFTs and cryptocurrencies held on centralized exchanges and marketplaces.
For this reason, the development of the NFT market in Russia and the CIS is of particular importance. This will allow creative people to realize themselves without restrictions, despite the unfavorable political background. Barter Smartplace is exactly the platform that provides the opportunity to trade NFT, despite any sanctions and restrictions, especially for Russian users — our fellow citizens.
The goal of Barter Smartplace is to bring the blockchain business out of the shadows and become the most recognizable NFT trading platform in Russia and the CIS. Open up new profit opportunities for the Russian economy.
The current difficult situation is also an ideal opportunity for dialogue with regulators, because economic and technological sovereignty is now a priority. It is likely that with the launch of the Digital Ruble, we will see the possibility of its pilot launch on the NFT trading floors and domestic cryptocurrency exchanges.
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Our services:
Marketplace https://smartplace.barter.company
Barter wallet bot http://t.me/barterwalletbot
Contacts:
Blog https://medium.com/bartersmartplace
Telegram chat https://t.me/barterteam
Discord https://discord.gg/r7Bgnfmzk9
Twitter https://twitter.com/barterteam
Instagram https://instagram.com/bartersmartplace
