Russia May Introduce Bill To Legalize Crypto

By Rishma Banerjee

It was reported by a Russian News service called Interfax, on the 21st of June, that a representative of the Russian Ministry of Finance (MinFin) has revealed that the ministry is considering allowing cryptocurrency trading.

According to the report, Alexei Moiseyev, the Deputy Minister of Finance of the country told journalists on Friday that, while MinFin had not yet reached a final decision, talks were going on about allowing cryptocurrency trading in the upcoming bill on the circulation of cryptocurrencies in the Russian Federation. Here, it must be noted that a law prohibiting the use of crypto assets as a legitimate means of payment in the Russian Federation passed in May of last year.

Anatoly Aksakov, who is the head of the Duma Financial Market Committee, referred to the pending decision as a compromise and also made it a point to note that the Financial Action Task Force has made recommendations that Russia adopts a bill regulating the circulation of cryptocurrencies by the end of this year.

As was reported earlier, it is expected that the State Duma, which is Russia’s parliament, will be adopting the country’s major crypto bill “On Digital Financial Assets” (DFA) in the next two weeks.

At the time, Moiseev declared that MinFin has also approved separate legislation for initial coin offerings, which will be a part of Russia’s law on crowdfunding. Also this week, news broke that the head of the Bank of Russia said that while they are exploring the possibility of launching a central bank digital currency (CBDC), it is not planned for the near future.