PANews reported on March 14 that according to Jinshi, four sources familiar with the matter revealed that Russia is using cryptocurrencies in its oil trade with India to circumvent Western sanctions. Although Russia has publicly encouraged the use of cryptocurrencies and passed a law last summer allowing digital currencies to be used for payments in international trade, there have been no previous reports of its use of cryptocurrencies in oil trade. Sources said that some Russian oil companies are using stablecoins such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Tether to facilitate the process of exchanging Indian rupees for Russian rubles. They also added that this part of cryptocurrency transactions accounted for a small but growing proportion of Russia's total oil trade valued at $192 billion last year (according to the International Energy Agency). Cryptocurrencies have previously helped countries under US sanctions such as Iran and Venezuela to maintain their economies while avoiding the use of the US dollar, the preferred currency for transactions in the global oil market.