Western sanctions...

plies, but Russia would only be able to do so at heavily discounted prices.

Could Russia use crypto to bypass the exclusion of some of its banks from SWIFT? If so, why and how?

Fears that Russia may be able to costlessly bypass the exclusion from SWIFT of many of its (sanctioned) banks by switching to distributed ledger technologies and crypto assets, are misplaced in my view. While it can be relatively straightforward for individuals to convert local currency into

Bitcoin or digital wallets, to attempt to run an entire economy’s international transactions and payments via an alternative crypto system is a different matter altogether. There just isn’t enough crypto liquidity around to satisfy a Russian operation on this scale, on a daily basis. Currently, there is no realistic alternative to SWIFT’s huge infrastructure to move value around the world reliably and securely. The SWIFT’s network, which was founded in the 1970s, is enormous and keeps growing (messaging traffic increased by 11% last year alone).

It currently connects more than 11,000 banks and financial institutions and 4 billion accounts across more than 200 countries worldwide warranting instant, frictionless transactions. Every day it processes, on average, 42 million financial messages that facilitate transfers of money.