The forthcoming Mastercard’s acceptance of cryptocurrency payments may face questions in Russia due to the peculiarities of the legislation, said ForkLog partner at the Digital Rights Center law firm, Mikhail Tretyak.
He noted that Mastercard is rolling out operations with digital assets primarily for settlements for various goods and services. However, the Law on Digital Financial Assets (\”On DFAs\”) directly prohibits accepting digital currencies as payment, the lawyer said:
“That is, using Mastercard’s proposed functionality for buying coffee, paying for repairs, or paying for a personal trainer’s services will clearly be prohibited – it would only be usable for buying and selling cryptocurrencies and, possibly, DFAs. There will be no payments – there will be no taxes; the math here is extremely simple.”
The DFA Law also forbids disseminating information about offering and accepting digital currencies as payment.
“That means Mastercard is effectively prohibited from conveying information about the possibility of paying with cryptocurrency for goods, works, and services to Russian citizens,” Tretyak said.
There is a strong probability that in the future Mastercard settlements could use the digital ruble, given the Bank of Russia’s increased interest in issuing its own digital currency, the lawyer noted.
As previously reported, the State Duma passed the On DFAs law in July last year. It came into force on 1 January 2021.
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