The Russian Ministry of Finance begins public discussions on the regulation of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and others.
The Russian Ministry of Finance announced the beginning of the development of two bills, which will last until March 18.
While the Central Bank favored a complete ban, the Russian government decided to move forward with tight regulations which would address main concerns of the Central Bank, while allowing Russia to profit from holding or mining cryptocurrencies.
Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko approves the regulation of cryptocurrencies, rather than their prohibition, identification of customers, responsibility for illegal trafficking in digital assets, as well as the development of methods for assessing the value of cryptocurrencies.
“We need to create clear and transparent rules for the participation of citizens and businesses in financial instruments of the crypto market. The concept provides for traceability of money flows and crypto transactions, as well as identification of users. If a ban is introduced, all of them could automatically become violators of the law, which means millions of people,”
Deputy Minister of Finance in a prior statement
Central Bank wants full Bitcoin ban
The Central Bank published a report on 20th January, in which it proposed to ban circulation and exchange of cryptocurrencies, as well as the organization of these operations in Russia. The regulator also considered it necessary to ban mining of digital assets and monitor the investment of Russians in cryptocurrency on foreign trading platforms.
On January 28th, RBC reported that Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko approved the road map, which proposed regulation of cryptocurrencies, rather than their prohibition.
It includes identification of customers, liability for illegal trafficking of digital assets, as well as development of methods to assess the value of cryptocurrencies. Representatives of the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economic Development, the Prosecutor General’s Office, Rosfinmonitoring, the Federal Security Service, the Interior Ministry, the Federal Tax Service, the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Russia participated in the development of the roadmap.
Great news for Bitcoin mining
The Ministry of Economic Development proposed to allow cryptocurrency and Bitcoin mining in regions with a stable surplus of electricity. The ministry also suggests introducing reasonable tariffs for the use of electricity for companies engaged in mining. It believes that these measures will help to avoid the risk of power shortages for the housing and industry in the rest of the territories.
How will undeclared Bitcoin be legalized?
So far, the most interesting question is the legalization of undeclared cryptocurrency, which is yet unknown. What part of owners will prefer to stay in the illegal sector depends on the future taxation of transactions and on the rules of legalization. The Ministry of Finance’s estimate of the total amount of crypto-assets in Russia is 12 million crypto-wallets with assets worth 2.4 billion US-Dollars.
