As crypto investments grow in popularity in Russia, the country’s central bank is actively working to contain suspicious crypto activity and block some crypto purchases.

The Russian central bank has started working with local banks to ask them to suspend payments on cryptocurrency exchanges in order to protect customers from buying cryptocurrencies by “feel”.

Sergey Shvetsov, first deputy governor of Russia’s central bank, argued that the new measures are designed to protect Russian investors from possible losses in the event of a “collapse” of the cryptocurrency market, the company said Wednesday.

The recent anti-crypto movement comes soon after the Central Bank of Russia urged local banks and lending firms to increase their awareness of certain types of financial transactions by individuals, including transactions related to cryptocurrency exchange services.

In an official statement released on September 6, Russia’s central bank urged local banks to block customer accounts, e-wallets or credit cards for cryptocurrency transactions, identifying suspects based on several criteria such as the number of senders or recipients.

Several criteria suggest that Russian banks should block accounts associated with an “unusually large number of counterparties” or accounts with transactions from more than 10 different payers or recipients per day or more than 50 such partners per month. Other criteria require increased attention from banks if the average customer balance does not exceed 10% of their average daily trading volume for at least a week.

According to the document, the new recommendations aim to monitor and curb illicit financial activities involving illegal deals. According to the Russian Central Bank, shadow economy actors mostly receive payments from bank cards or e-wallets, which are often issued by forged identities.

The Russian central bank did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.

Related: Survey Shows 77% of Russian Investors Prefer Bitcoin to Gold and Foreign Exchange

As previously reported, the Russian central bank is largely reluctant to embrace the crypto industry. In July, the central bank urged local exchanges to stay away from the listings of foreign and local companies involved in the provision of crypto-related services. The authorities are also said to have banned large banks from offering trading in cryptocurrencies.