Ministry of Finance does not rule out remote access for foreigners to purchase cryptocurrencies in Russia

The Finance Ministry proposes allowing non-residents to buy cryptocurrencies on Russian and foreign exchanges, provided that funds are withdrawn through authorised banks in the Russian Federation. This is reported by Interfax, citing the ministry’s explanations of the concept for regulating the cryptocurrency market.

In the event of the legalisation of cryptocurrencies in Russia, the ministry forecasts an inflow of foreign investors to the market with the aim of “acquiring newly created cryptocurrencies from Russian miners.”

“Non-residents will be able to access, including remotely, the operations of digital-asset exchange operators and foreign digital-asset exchanges within the Russian jurisdiction,” the document states.

At the same time, the ministry proposes considering limiting the list of cryptocurrencies traded in Russia to protect investors.

The Finance Ministry explained its position by noting that foreign exchanges “often do not conduct any checks on projects before listing, allowing blatantly fraudulent assets and pyramid-scheme cryptocurrencies.”

“In contrast, regulated turnover through licensed Russian operators of the exchange system will allow restricting the list of tradable assets and offering Russian citizens access only to the most mature and established cryptocurrencies, for which tools and procedures for ПОД/ФТ have been developed,” the ministry notes.

A number of issues touched indirectly in the concept remain to be discussed. Among them the ministry cites the mechanism for declaring cryptocurrencies, the list of documents submitted to ФНС, the system for calculating the tax on cryptocurrency transactions, and the procedure for determining the asset’s value at the time of the operation.

Separately, the Finance Ministry is preparing proposals for the concept of legislative regulation of mining.

“The implementation of the proposals outlined in the concept can be carried out within the framework of refining the already prepared bills, for the second reading,” the authors of the document added.

As reported, the Russian government approved the concept of regulating the turnover of cryptocurrencies, under which a corresponding bill must be created by 18 February.

Earlier ForkLog provided a detailed look at the main provisions of the concept, and experts listed the risks of its implementation.

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