Bitcoin proposed as a contractual payment instrument in Russia

The State Duma has considered amendments to the Civil Code that would permit using cryptocurrencies as a contractual payment instrument. Interfax reports.

According to Pavel Krasheninnikov, head of the State Duma committee on legislation, deputies are examining the mechanism for applying digital assets to the payment of goods and services by mutual agreement of the parties.

“This will be a kind of contractual payment, and it will become legal,” he said.

Under international law, a legal means of payment must be accepted for payment in any store, while a contractual one is accepted by agreement of the parties to the contract.

The initiative is currently under review by the committee.

As noted earlier, since 1 January 2021, Russia has had the Law On Digital Financial Assets in force. It recognises cryptocurrencies as property and prohibits their use to pay for goods and services within the country.

Earlier, the head of the State Duma committee on the financial market, Anatoly Aksakov, proposed legislatively divide digital assets into classes, including stablecoins, cryptocurrencies and central bank digital currencies.

Representatives of the Bank of Russia have repeatedly stated that they do not allow the use of cryptocurrencies and stablecoins in settlements on the territory of the country, since the official means of payment can be considered only the ruble and its digital analogue.

Meanwhile, in 2020, payment service using digital currency joined the central bank’s regulatory sandbox.

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