The Russian government and the Bank of Russia have agreed to regulate cryptocurrencies like currencies, not assets
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The Bank of Russia wanted the Russian government to declare the use of cryptocurrencies illegal in Russia, but instead of banning the use cryptocurrencies, the Russian government and the Bank of Russian have agreed that cryptocurrencies will be recognized as an analogue of currencies in Russia and they will be regulated as such.
From this newspaper that is nationally distributed in Russia: https://ift.tt/t3qWGDo
The government and the Bank of Russia have agreed on a future regime for the circulation of cryptocurrencies in Russia: before February 18, they will prepare a draft law on the circulation of digital currencies in the Russian Federation, in which cryptocurrencies are recognized as an analogue of currencies, and not digital financial assets (DFA). Their circulation in the legal sector will be possible only with full identification, through the banking system or licensed intermediaries. Operations equivalent to more than 600 thousand rubles must be declared, transactions outside the legal sector for such amounts will become a criminal offense and an aggravating circumstance under the Criminal Code, fines will be introduced for the illegal acceptance of cryptocurrencies as a means of payment. Mining and related issues of DFA are not affected by the concept within which the project is being prepared.
The government, after meetings with Deputy Prime Minister, Chief of Staff of the White House Dmitry Grigorenko, published the approved “Concept for regulating the mechanisms for organizing the circulation of digital currencies.” Recall that the White House has been discussing the new status of cryptocurrencies and digital currencies in the Russian Federation since the summer of 2021, in January 2021 a road map was created on this issue, the Bank of Russia made a consultative report proposing to ban the circulation of cryptocurrencies in the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Finance – with its own development on this topic. The final concept is mainly based on the positions of the Ministry of Finance.Until February 18, the ministry and the Bank of Russia must formulate either a separate bill or amendments to the law on the CFA and other laws for its implementation.
The details of the “transition period”, as well as mining, are not discussed by the concept. Meanwhile, they are quite important: the regulation of turnover will require quick decisions from cryptocurrency owners – whether they should move into the emerging legal market segment, get rid of such assets, or stay in the illegal sector. The main difference between the concept, which, in fact, implements the Central Bank’s strong distrust of cryptocurrency, is the proposal to develop amendments to the Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure, according to which evasion of declaring transactions with cryptocurrency will become a criminal offense, and its use will become an aggravating circumstance in other offenses.
The possession of cryptocurrency in the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation and transactions with it (as well as with the dollar) are not prohibited – but only through the “organizer of the digital currency exchange system” (a bank with a universal license) or a p2p exchanger legalized in the Russian Federation. The mode of operation of the legal segment involves the full identification of the client according to banking rules, work taking into account AML / CFT requirements, all information about transactions through the Transparent Blockchain system of Rosfinmonitoring will be available for state control in the same way as transactions with non-cash rubles or foreign currency on bank accounts. The mode of control over transactions with the cryptocurrency of natural persons, however, is described by the concept as not too different from the mode of control over cash transactions with any currency. Most likely, the main argument “for” was that in the USA, the EU and Japan they are inclined to the same or to strict bans, as in China, which was also proposed by the Bank of Russia.
So far, the most intriguing is the organization of the legalization of the existing undeclared cryptocurrency, which is not described in the concept. Market participants have no doubts that the possibilities of working with “legal crypto” in the implementation of the concept are adequate. The same part of the owners who prefer to remain in the sector illegal for the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation depends on the future taxation of operations with cryptocurrencies (from the meaning of the concept it follows that it should not differ from the principles of holding foreign currency) and on the rules of legalization. The Ministry of Finance’s estimate of the total amount of crypto assets in the Russian Federation has not changed – it is 12 million crypto wallets with assets worth 2 trillion rubles. It is decidedly unknown whether this figure takes into account the cryptocurrency used in the criminal sector, obviously.
Cryptocurrency
