Russian Finance Ministry changes terminology in ‘On Digital Currency’ bill

In the draft law ‘On Digital Currency’, the Russian Ministry of Finance replaced the concept of a qualified investor with a professional acquirer of digital currency. This, Interfax reports, citing an informed source.

The agency proposes treating a professional acquirer as a natural person recognised as such by the operator of a digital trading platform or by a digital currency exchange.

The bill preserves a limit allowing non-professional investors to annually acquire digital currencies for no more than 50,000 rubles. If they pass a test, the limit may be increased to 600,000 rubles.

Professional acquirers will be able to conduct transactions without restrictions.

In the new edition, the minimum own funds requirement for an exchange has been reduced—from 50 million to 30 million rubles. For exchanges, the threshold remains the same—no less than 100 million rubles.

The definition of digital mining has also changed. It is now described as “the operation of one or more computing devices integrated into an information system that enable the circulation of digital currency in that system, and the user obtaining digital currency for such operation”.

Legal entities and individual entrepreneurs may mine after being included in a special registry. Individuals who receive digital currency from mining are not obliged to register as individual entrepreneurs if the energy consumed for this purpose does not exceed the limits set by the government.

If adopted, the law will come into force on 1 January 2023.

The Ministry of Finance’s the draft law ‘On Digital Currency’ provides for cryptocurrency operations through Russian banks, identification of crypto wallet holders and separation of investors by qualifications.

Anatoly Aksakov, head of the Committee on the Financial Market, said that the law could be adopted alongside amendments to the Tax Code, concerning taxation of operations with crypto-assets.

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