Russian oil companies are said to be using Bitcoin, Ether and stablecoins such as Tether in the process, mainly to facilitate the exchange of Chinese yuan and Indian rupees for Russian rubles.

According to sources Reuters spoke to, however, this constitutes only a small, though growing, part of Russia's oil trade. This trade totaled US$192 billion last year, according to the International Energy Agency.

The sale of Russian oil to China through crypto transactions, for example, amounts to only a few tens of millions of dollars a month, Reuters reported.

Since the outbreak of war in Ukraine and subsequent sanctions by Western countries, Russia has increasingly turned to these alternative trading methods. A report by Chainalysis shows that Russia, alongside China and Iran, is currently among the countries most frequently turning to crypto alternatives to maintain existing trade routes.

Last summer, Russia also passed a law allowing payments in digital currencies for international trade. In addition, the Russian central bank recently announced plans to allow investments in cryptocurrencies for wealthy investors and companies.

Within Russia, however, cryptocurrencies remain generally banned as official means of payment. Russia's central bank, Bank Rossii, previously made it clear that cryptocurrencies are primarily considered a specific-purpose instrument.

Critics of cryptocurrencies often point to the use of this technology for criminal activity or circumventing sanctions. For example, Tether's stablecoin USDT is also said to be used by countries such as Venezuela to avoid sanctions.

However, analysts stress that the majority of illicit activity is still through traditional currencies. From research from Chainalysis shows that the overall volume of illegal crypto activity has actually decreased over the past two years. Moreover, only 0.14 percent of all on-chain transactions can be traced to illegal practices.