By John Meyer, consultant in financial affairs – Eurasia Business News, July 31, 2024. Article n°1128.

The Russian State Duma in the second reading adopted on July 30 a bill on an experiment to create a platform in the Russian Federation for the use of cryptocurrencies in foreign trade settlements and exchange trading in cryptocurrency from September 1. The innovations will operate as an experiment in legal regimes.

Exchange trading in cryptocurrency and the creation of an operator for settlements in them in the contour of the National Payment System are also allowed.

Lawyers believe that only legal entities and individual entrepreneurs will have access to them. However, experts believe that such a project does not save from sanctions and does not guarantee anonymity, since it will be possible to track a chain of transactions using the blockchain, which will lead to a negative “coloring” of the cryptocurrency used.

Currently, the use of cryptocurrency for settlements is prohibited in Russia. The bill adopted in the second reading provides an opportunity to use such a currency within the framework of experimental legal regimes (EPR) with some nuances. These regimes provide for the use of cryptocurrencies as a currency value, transactions with them as a means of payment in foreign trade.

Russia has been discussing the new status of cryptocurrencies and digital currencies in the country since the summer of 2021. In April 2022, the Russian Ministry of Finance finalized the draft federal law “On Digital Currency”, and sent it to the government of the Russian Federation.

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Anton Gorelkin, Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Information Policy, Information Technology and Communications, said that a number of changes were made to the document by the second reading, in particular, the previously proposed bans on the organization of the circulation of cryptocurrencies and mining for ordinary citizens were canceled. After that, the bill on the regulation of mining became quite balanced, it will help the industry develop effectively. Cryptocurrencies in the document are considered as a tool for circumventing sanctions and a point of high-tech export.

“Today, Russia ranks second in mining, and I am sure that after the regulation of this area appears, we will come out on top, overtaking the United States,” Gorelkin stressed, adding that the bill proposes to ban mining advertising, which is due to the growth of fraudulent schemes in which people are involved.

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The bill, which allows the Bank of Russia to launch an experiment to create a platform for the use of cryptocurrencies in international settlements, is proposed to be introduced into the laws on the Bank of Russia, currency regulation and currency control, on experimental legal regimes in the field of digital innovations, as well as in the law on digital financial assets and digital currency. The authors of the document expect that its implementation will contribute to the development of competition, increase the availability of goods, as well as increase the profits of entrepreneurs and attract investment. It is assumed that the law will come into force on September 1, 2024.

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On July 17, the Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the need for legislative regulation of cryptocurrency mining. The President noted that it is possible to mine digital currencies virtually anywhere in the world, but it requires a lot of electricity. An uncontrolled increase in electricity consumption for cryptocurrency mining can lead to a shortage of power in some regions. According to the Kremlin, this is fraught with danger for companies, housing and communal services, cities and towns.

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© Copyright 2024 – Eurasia Business News. Article No. 1128.