My brother is amazing, the CEO of the Russian Federal Reserve is actually a Bitcoiner

The Russian government and officials have long been dismissive of Bitcoin and digital currencies, and have even said they will enact laws to punish cryptocurrency users and miners. However, the leader of Russia's largest bank has publicly admitted that he holds Bitcoin and has traded Bitcoin for fiat currencies.

Herman Gref is the CEO and chairman of Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank by market value. According to Russian news agency TASS, Gref has publicly praised the advantages of virtual currencies and believes they will soon permeate all aspects of society.

He made the speech at the launch of an educational project between the Russian Federal Reserve and Google, in which he detailed how he trades cryptocurrencies and converts them into fiat currencies by speculating on their prices.

He said:

There are more and more types of virtual currencies and more and more exchanges. I can easily exchange virtual currencies for legal tender, which is a very pleasant process.

He continued:

I had some Bitcoins, but I was not satisfied with the price at that time. So I did not use them for the time being, and planned to exchange them into rupees and dollars when the price went up. Unexpectedly, only two and a half months later, I found that the price of Bitcoin was really good, so I exchanged it into legal currency.

For all the professional and non-professional investors in the world, Bitcoin is a game about return on investment, and it is their inherent habits that make Bitcoin a means of storing value. Gref added:

Sure, it’s fun and it’s an elaborate game, but soon it will become our life.

Gref has never hidden his admiration for digital currencies. Earlier, he criticized Russia's Bitcoin ban, saying that such a proposal would hinder the development of blockchain technology in Russia.