The Central Bank urged not to reject Bitcoin and promised to eventually develop regulation for the circulation of electronic currencies in Russia, the ITAR-TASS agency reported on Wednesday.

First Deputy Chairman of the Bank of Russia Georgy Luntovsky said during the International Banking Congress that the Central Bank is a supporter of a careful approach to bitcoin. “We cannot reject this tool; perhaps it is the future,” the agency quotes him as saying.

Luntovsky assured that the regulator, together with the Bank for International Settlements, is monitoring the situation. In different countries, according to him, very different ways of regulating bitcoin are used: if in China it was completely banned, then in California it was legalized.

Luntovsky recalled that such systems are sometimes used to pay for drugs and weapons on the black market. Therefore, in Russia, the decision on bitcoin will be made as information accumulates. According to the first deputy chairman of the Central Bank, the bank is now working together with the government to study this topic. “Perhaps after some time we will make a decision on legislative regulation of this issue,” he promised.

Previously, the Central Bank opposed the use of virtual currencies and on January 27, 2014 warned that operations on them are speculative in nature, carried out on “virtual exchanges” and carry a high risk of loss of value. The Bank of Russia then warned that the provision by Russian legal entities of services for the exchange of “virtual currencies” for rubles and foreign currencies, as well as for goods, works and services, will be considered as “potential involvement in dubious transactions.” According to the bank, when using virtual currency, “citizens and legal entities may be, including unintentionally, involved in illegal activities, including legalization (laundering) of proceeds from crime and the financing of terrorism.”