Speculations has been flying around lately, regarding Russia and its stance on cryptocurrencies and especially the Bitcoin. While some assumed that the major nation would not care so much about the use of cryptocurrencies, others feared that they would completely ban them, including using them, mining them or trading them.

The latter was right, as the Russian government announced this Friday that the use of cryptocurrencies is completely illegal as of now. It will not be possible to operate cryptocurrency companies within Russia and it will be illegal to mine, own, distribute or use cryptocurrencies as a private citizen within the country.

Should one be brave enough to continue using cryptocurrencies despite the ban, one could get fined heavily by the government. It will be hard for the Russian government to find those continuing to use cryptocurrencies, but it is still expected that many will stop using it simply due to the fear of being caught.

It might see the rise of completely anonymous cryptocurrencies in Russia instead, where companies who wanted to be legit has to go shady to operate and their customers will pay in anonymous cryptocurrency to avoid any risks of getting caught.