Russia has been vocal about its plans and efforts to regulate cryptocurrencies in the country. It is a popular, and lucrative, industry, and one that the country’s government wants to impose structure upon sooner rather than later.Well, sooner than we think actually as the country will be submitting their draft law, which had the input of the country’s central bank and its finance ministry, on all crypto and ICO regulations on the 28th of December.Anthony Akasov, who is the president of the association of regional banks of Russia, and the chairman for the State Duma Parliament Committee on financial markets, had this to say through a roughly translated interview with RIA:
“Cryptocurrency, thus far, is defined as other property. Until today, the meeting [among regulators and authorities] remains a small circle. There will be a final evaluation before the presentation of the bill. Whatever names they go by,Bitcoin or Ether, all cryptocurrencies are [to be seen] as other property.”
Even though the bill will be presented for acceptance this week, implementation of the new legislation will probably only occur at then end of March next year.Akasov went on to add:
“The problem is that we already have a lot of people who acquired cryptocurrencies and they are deceived. It is necessary to make possible [the laws] to people legally for this to work, to protect them as much as possible.”
He went on to state that digital currencies should not be subject to VAT:
“My opinion is that this property is a financial instrument, a financial asset, accordingly, its circulation should not be taxed on value added.”
Akasov also went on to discuss how this regulation will affect ICOs:
“The ICO is seen as an element of crowdfunding, and the approach is that investors should be limited in the amount they invest.”
Russia seems to have a fickle relationship with crypto. Peer-to-peer trading has grown by over 200% in the country, showing that its popularity cannot be ignored. In addition, ICOs in the country have raised more than $300 million in 2017. However, Russia is still set on its mission to control cryptocurrencies in the country.The country has previously expressed its aim to criminalize crypto mining, and just last year proposed imprisoning Bitcoin users. However, the strong allure of digital currencies cannot be ignored, evident in the fact Russia has also recently announced its plans to develop its own currency, the CryptoRuble.