Aksakov: cryptocurrency bill unlikely to reach the State Duma in the near term

The Russian authorities continue to discuss options for regulating the cryptocurrency market, and in the near term one should not expect the bill ‘On Digital Currencies’ to be submitted. This was stated by Anatoly Aksakov, head of the State Duma Committee on the Financial Market, as reported by Parliamentary Newspaper.

According to him, authorities are considering a third variant of the draft law on cryptocurrency regulation:

“I don’t think the document will appear in the State Duma any time soon. The cryptocurrency market situation does not inspire optimism: Bitcoin has fallen sharply amid sanction decisions.”

Aksakov believes that the regulation bill will be adopted in a “tough” version.

According to media reports, the Finance Ministry revised the document taking into account remarks from various agencies.

The bill now includes a provision allowing the use of cryptocurrencies as a payment medium in foreign trade activities of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs. It is envisaged that they will be able to conduct such deals after obtaining “an identifier provided by the operator of a digital trading platform”.

The document also prescribes an obligation for Bitcoin exchanges and exchangers to cooperate with law enforcement and to store information about users and their transactions for three years.

It is reported that the bill removed provisions on the scale of investments in cryptocurrencies for legal entities and “professional purchasers” of digital currencies.

The mining provisions also underwent changes. For example, the requirement to include in a special register of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs engaged in mining cryptocurrencies has disappeared, as has the description of transmitting information to the tax authorities.

Aksakov believes that the United States authorities have begun to tighten the crypto market because of the hypothetical use of Bitcoin to bypass sanctions:

“There are suspicions that American intelligence services largely control this market, so there is little desire to fall under their invisible or visible eye when conducting financial transactions.”

He also suggested that Russia might create a single centralized platform for crypto-asset transactions.

As the Ministry of Finance’s bill ‘On Digital Currency’ provides for conducting cryptocurrency operations through Russian banks, identifying holders of crypto wallets and differentiating investors by qualifications.

In April, the ministry changed the terminology of the document. Later it was revealed that it also supported a number of proposals from the FSB, the FNS and the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the bill.

In May, the head of the Finance Ministry’s Department of Financial Policy, Ivan Chebeskov, allowed that cryptocurrencies could be used by Russia in international settlements.

Meanwhile, the Bank of Russia acknowledged the impossibility of evading sanctions using cryptoassets. Analysts at Moody’s also believe that digital currencies will not help Russia circumvent sanctions.

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