The Russian Finance Ministry drafted a new bill on cryptocurrency on Friday in hopes the state Duma will ultimately sign it into law, moving Russia further ahead in the world of digital currency trading.
The bill legalizes the term "digital financial asset" as a security in electronic form, "created using encryption methods, of which the legal title of ownership is verified by making a digital record in the register of digital transactions," also known as a blockchain. The bill states that cryptocurrencies are not an authorized means of payment in Russia. Therefore, cryptocurrency -- based on this draft -- is not money. The opinion by the Finance Ministry rightly reflects the position expressed last year by Central Bank president Elvira Nabiullina.
The draft bill mentions cryptocurrency and tokens, another form of digital money used as payment for a start-up company's services. Tokens can be exchanged on cryptocurrency exchanges like stocks, leading to wild speculation in pricing worldwide.
Russia's government promised legislation to regulate cryptocurrency this year.
"The purpose of these bills is to define the scope of action and of the regulations of cryptocurrencies, not their prohibition, and this is good news for Russia," says Anti Danilevski, CEO of KickICO, a blockchain platform for fundraising in crypto that raised over $80 million in 2017 in their initial coin offering, or ICO.
Back in 2014, the Russian central bank called bitcoin "quasi-money" and has said that it was being used to launder money from criminal activities, and tax evasion.
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