Central banking concern digital currencies (CBDC) like Russia'due south digital ruble do not pose whatsoever threat to U.s. sanctions, according to U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretarial assistant Wally Adeyemo.

In a CNBC interview on Wednesday, Adeyemo argued that the U.S. dollar "will remain the dominant currency in the world" despite the increasing popularity of cryptocurrencies.

Adeyemo pointed out that digital assets provide an "opportunity in lots of ways" for the U.S. economic system, just it'due south also associated with many challenges such equally money laundering. Yet, there are ways to combat this in order to benefit from the growing industry. The official said:

"Nosotros do think that ultimately working together with countries around the earth, we tin address this run a risk by calling on the creators of digital assets to follow the rules effectually Anti-Money Laundering more closely."

Adeyemo also suggested that digital currencies by global central banks are not associated with any risks in terms of U.Southward. sanctions.

"We believe that even if a digital ruble or other digital currencies come into place, there will still be scope for our sanctions to take an bear on on their economies simply because the global economy is however inter-connected," he said.

The official went on to say that companies in Russian federation do a lot of business around the world, with much of it existence done in U.Due south. dollars with American financial institutions considering the "American economic system remains the biggest economic system in the globe."

"As long equally that is the case, and as long as we brand the investments that are needed, we are still going to take the ability to use our sanctions government to brand sure that we prevent the thing that it was created to prevent," the official noted.

Adeyemo'southward remarks come presently after sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska called on the Russian government to adopt Bitcoin (BTC) as a tool to avoid U.S. sanctions and weaken the U.S. dollar. "The U.Due south. had realized long ago that uncontrolled digital payments are capable of non only nullifying the effectiveness of the unabridged mechanism of economic sanctions only also taking down the dollar as a whole," he argued last month.

Related: Us Treasury says it must 'modernize and adapt' to digital currencies

In October, the deputy government minister of Foreign Diplomacy of Russia also reiterated Russian federation's plans to reduce the U.S. dollar share in Russian federation's international reserves as part of the country'due south program to avoid challenges posed by sanctions from the U.Due south. government.

The U.S. has imposed a number of sanctions on Russia in contempo years for reasons such as suspected poisoning of opposition politicians, election interference and cyberattacks.