After months of back and forth on how to deal with digital assets, Russia’s government and the country’s central bank have decided to draft a bill to recognize them as analogs of currencies. The officials have till February 18 to present the draft.
- The world’s largest country by landmass has had an erratic approach to the cryptocurrency industry a few years back.
- Until recently, there was controversy among some governing bodies as to how to deal with them. On the one hand, Russia’s central bank proposed a complete ban on any crypto, citing the increased volatility that threatens the country’s financial system.
- On the other hand, however, the country’s finance ministry preferred a softer approach by imposing regulations rather than sanctions.
- According to a report in local newspaper Kommersant, the authorities have decided to go the other way and will prepare a draft law by February 18, to define crypto as “an analog of currencies” rather than as a digital financial asset.
- According to a government statement, the regulation aims to integrate digital currencies into the financial system and “ensure control over cash flows in the circuits of credit institutions.”
- Digital asset transactions will be possible only through legitimate intermediaries, such as exchanges and P2P platforms and banks. They will need full identification.
- The initial stages of the draft law suggest that all crypto transactions over 600,000 rubles (about $8,000) must be declared or run the risk of being labeled as a criminal offense.
- It is worth noting that the country’s president – Vladimir Putin – seemed to favor regulations rather than ban and supported crypto mining.
- Russia’s population is the most active in the crypto market, with recent estimates from the Kremlin showing that they hold over $200 billion in digital assets.
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