The Ministry of Finance has submitted to the government its version of the bill on the regulation of cryptocurrencies, which is aimed at creating a legal market for digital currencies with the establishment of rules for their circulation and the circle of participants. This is stated on the website of the department. The bill “On digital currency” prohibits its use as a means of payment, but proposes to consider it as an investment tool.
At its core, the bill reflects the concept of cryptocurrency regulation published by the early government, which was also developed by the Ministry of Finance. The project proposes to create a special register of crypto-exchanges and crypto-exchangers (operators) that can carry out activities related to the organization of the circulation of digital currencies, and also prescribes requirements for such operators. The requirements will relate to corporate governance, reporting, information storage, internal control and audit, risk management system and the amount of own funds. The bill assumes that operators will receive a license for their activities, and they will be controlled by an authorized body determined by the government. Foreign cryptocurrency exchanges will have to register in Russia to obtain a license.
The bill allows transactions with the purchase and sale of cryptocurrency, but only through Russian banks and only for those clients who have been identified. It will be carried out both by operators when accepting clients for service, and by banks when opening a bank account.
In addition to the fact that exchanges will be required to inform citizens about the high risks associated with investing in digital currencies, the bill introduces mandatory online testing for potential investors in cryptocurrency to check their level of knowledge about the specifics of investments and risk awareness. Upon successful completion of testing, citizens can invest in digital currencies up to 600,000 rubles. annually. If the test fails, the investment limit will be limited to 50,000 rubles. For comparison, now one bitcoin costs about $39,300 or about 3 million rubles.
Qualified investors and legal entities will be able to make transactions without restrictions, according to the website of the Ministry of Finance.
For crypto-exchanges, a nominal account mode is introduced, on which the funds of trading participants will be located, as well as an obligation for exchanges and exchangers to maintain registers indicating the address-identifiers of each holder of digital currencies. The draft law also provides for the procedure for maintaining such registers.
Exchanges will be required to separate in the information system the digital currency owned by them from the digital currency of bidders. Also, according to the message of the Ministry of Finance, the collection of debts of the trading platform operator cannot be extended to the cryptocurrency of citizens and legal entities.
Among other things, the bill consolidates the definition of digital mining as an activity aimed at obtaining cryptocurrencies, and also provides for a mechanism for transferring information to the tax authorities for their control and supervisory functions.
At the end of last week, the Bank of Russia sent its version of the bill to the Ministry of Finance. The Ministry of Finance said in a statement that the department has received the drafts of the Central Bank and will take into account the proposals of the regulator in further work on the bill.
The Bank of Russia is still adamant about banning the development of cryptocurrencies in Russia. His two developed bills prohibit the issuance, circulation and possession of cryptocurrency in Russia, and fines of up to 1 million rubles are introduced for violation of the prohibitions. Banks, according to the draft of the Central Bank, will be prohibited from owning cryptocurrency. In addition, the bill effectively prohibits advertising any information about cryptocurrency.