Anatoly Aksakov: Hackers won’t be able to breach the digital ruble — unlike Binance

Anatoly Aksakov, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on the Financial Market, stated that hackers would be unable to breach the Bank of Russia or steal its central bank digital currency (CBDC), as the CBDC platform features a "double layer of protection."

According to the lawmaker, for an attacker to gain access to a digital ruble wallet, they would first need to compromise the system of the commercial bank offering the CBDC to its clients, and subsequently breach the Central Bank’s own information system. Aksakov asserted that Russian banks maintain a high level of security—particularly the largest "systemically important credit institutions"—which, he noted, have never been successfully hacked.

"In effect, there are two entry points: first the credit institution, and then the Central Bank’s system. Since two separate systems would need to be compromised, the digital ruble is, in a sense, protected by two layers of security," Aksakov explained in an interview with the news outlet Podem.

Previously, the financial committee chairman had mentioned that the digital ruble would incorporate a triple-layered security system against fraudsters.

The lawmaker’s latest statement comes in response to what is being described as the largest cryptocurrency theft in the history of the crypto market.

Just recently, attackers breached Binance—the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume—resulting in an estimated loss of $6.3 billion. The hackers siphoned off approximately 60 different cryptocurrencies from the platform, including Bitcoin, Ether, and the stablecoins USDT and USDC, moving the funds across several networks. Binance has since worked with stablecoin issuers to freeze over $2.5 billion worth of these crypto assets, and the exchange’s management has pledged to compensate clients for all lost holdings.

According to a recent survey by state-owned bank VTB, nearly half of Russians who use the digital ruble (42%) opened an account out of mere curiosity. Another third set up a digital ruble wallet to take advantage of free transfers.