Experts warned of abuse risks tied to ‘ecosystem cryptocurrencies’

Placing crypto assets as internal settlement units in Russia’s digital ecosystems could lead to “a quantitative growth of abuses.” This is stated in a report by the Center for Strategic Developments.

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In the view of experts, existing antitrust tools can adequately cope with tying, discrimination and the use of payment data.

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“The emergence of crypto assets within ecosystems does not create qualitatively new risks, but may increase the number of instances of realizing existing risks. Crypto assets may also generate additional risks for competition,” they stated.

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Researchers noted that the current law “On Digital Financial Assets” does not envisage prospective regulation of digital currency based on foreign information infrastructure.

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In this regard, they propose clarifying and refining the existing market regulation before introducing additional prohibitive measures for ecosystems.

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“Regulation of crypto assets within ecosystems is unlikely to differ from their overall regulation. If we regard digital currency as a monetary surrogate, it may be so regardless of where it is issued,” the report said.

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Earlier, a representative of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation stated about the limitations of cryptocurrencies as a means of payment.

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As noted, on 1 January the law “On Digital Financial Assets” came into force. It recognises cryptocurrencies as property and prohibits using them to pay for goods and services on the territory of the Russian Federation.

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