In the recent past, Russia was looking quite perplexed and whimsical on deciding the state of cryptocurrency operations within the country. The heads of various financial departments have made several contradictory statements, and so far, they have not reached any final conclusion on the matter.
Taking a step further, Anatoly Aksakov, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Financial Markets and other Russian deputies have recently submitted a draft-law on digital financial assets directed towards regulating Initial Coin Offerings and digital currencies, noted an official press release on March 20.
The press release notes that, following recent instructions from Russian President Vladimir Putin, officials have prepared the documents ‘On Digital Financial Assets’ and ‘On Alternative Methods of Fundraising (Crowdfunding).’ It also states that the cryptocurrency regulations will become law by July 1, 2018.
The legislative proposal put forward in State Duma, the lower house of country’s parliament aims to define that how digital currencies fit into the Russian law and remove the uncertainties that have kept the decision on a stand-still.
Under the new bill, only operators licensed under the ‘Securities Market’ law will receive permission to handle these digital assets. The bill states: ‘Only legal entities established under Russian law and engaged in the activities outlined in Articles 3, 4, and 5 of the Federal Law of April 22, 1996, can operate exchanges for digital financial assets.’
The Russian Ministry of Finance introduced the first bill “On Digital Financial Assets” earlier this year on Jan 25. The bill calls for considering cryptocurrencies as digital financial assets and allows customers to trade only through authorized customer exchanges. It also establishes KYC regulations for ICOs.
The newly proposed bill consider cryptocurrencies as property and mentions that it is not a legitimate means of payment in the country. The current bill asks for KYC regulations not only for ICOs but also for customer identity verification on digital currency exchanges.
Article 4 of the bill states: “A digital wallet may be opened by a digital exchange operator of financial assets only after passing the procedures for identifying its owner in accordance with the Federal Law ‘On Counteraction legislation (laundering) or proceeds from crime, and financing of terrorism.”
Russia will another country to join the likes of EU, US and South Korea that requires mandatory customer identity verification to trade in cryptocurrencies. Lawmakers expect this bill to resolve the long-standing disagreements between the Central Bank of Russia and the Ministry of Finance.
