Members of the BRICS alliance have agreed to close the membership to the block for 2024. The news came amid the ongoing BRICS Summit ongoing in Kazan, Russia. The alliance, which originally comprises of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa is exploring ways to free itself from the US Dollar hegemony. For this, conversation has once veered toward Bitcoin (BTC), and stablecoin before now.
The BRICS Membership Structure and Admittance
Besides the core founding members, the alliance has expanded dramatically over the past year. Earlier this year, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia officially joined the alliance. Beyond this full members, the body has a number of partner countries within its ranks.
These include Nigeria, Turkey, Malaysia and Thailand among others. As reported earlier by Coingape, Turkey unveiled plans to to join the body in June. With the new update to block new memberships, there are conversations around what the bloc will focus on for the rest of the year.
The BRICS agenda is well defined and it hinges on improving economic and trade relations. The group hopes to achieve this by shunning the Western financial system built around the US Dollar. Some of the countries in the bloc, especially Russia and Iran are highly motivated with respect to this agenda. This is because of the sanctions on both nations by the United States Government and European allies.
In fulfilling its agenda, some of the countries have conducted foreign trade bypassing the US Dollar as the settlement currency. For instance, India sidestepped the Dollar last year when it completed the first Rupee-based oil trade with UAE.
What About Bitcoin and Crypto?
It is worth noting that amid the plans to demote the role of the Dollar, conversations have risen up on how Bitcoin and crypto can fit in. In earlier report, Coingape hinted at the ways Russia can evade Western sanctions with Bitcoin.
There has not been any official acknowledgement that Bitcoin will feature in the broader plans for the BRICS bloc, however, stablecoins might play a role. In all, Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that the conversation around national unifying currency for the alliance is premature.
For now, the body is exploring a payment system that will utilize blockchain to boost its cross-border settlement agenda.
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