A Russian company indirectly supported by Russia’s largest bank will establish a cryptocurrency tracking platform as part of a $200,000 purchase contract.

The authorities of the Russian Federation are advancing a plan to closely monitor illegal transactions in cryptocurrency activities and de-anonymize the identities of cryptocurrency users.

The Russian Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, also known as Rosfinmonitoring, has selected a contractor to develop a platform to track cryptocurrency activities. According to data from the Russian national procurement website, the country will allocate 14.7 million rubles ($200,000) from the budget to create a “module for monitoring and analyzing cryptocurrency transactions” using Bitcoin.

According to official data, the procurement contract was awarded to a company called RCO, which is said to be indirectly supported by Russia’s largest bank Sber (formerly known as Sberbank).

According to the contract documents, the task of RCO is to establish a monitoring tool to track the flow of digital financial assets, maintain a database of cryptocurrency wallets involved in illegal activities, and monitor the behavior of cryptocurrency users in order to identify them.

The platform will also be designed to compile detailed profiles of cryptocurrency users, assess their role in economic activities, and determine the possibility of their involvement in illegal activities. According to Rosfinmonitoring, Russia’s upcoming cryptocurrency tracking tool will improve the efficiency of primary financial monitoring and compliance, and ensure the safety of budget funds.

This latest development marks another milestone in Russia’s tracking of cryptocurrency transactions, after Rosfinmonitoring announced a “transparent blockchain” initiative a year ago to track the flow of digital financial assets.

As previously reported, the agency plans to “partially reduce” the anonymity of transactions involving major digital assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum (ETH) and privacy-oriented cryptocurrencies such as Monero (XMR). Rosfinmonitoring initially disclosed its plan to track the transition of cryptocurrencies in August 2018. (Cointelegraph).

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