Regulation
Putin will introduce laws
Russian President Vladimir Putin is a bitcoin skeptic who wants cryptocurrency regulation in place “by July 1,” according to an official government publication. Journal of Parliament.
The regulation is part of the draft law on the regulation of digital assets, which is expected to establish guidelines for the use of cryptocurrencies in Russia.
Separately, the Russian Finance Ministry plans to introduce a law that will criminalize the use of cryptocurrencies as monetary substitutes.
Elvira Nabiullina, head of the Bank of Russia, said she and the Russian Finance Ministry oppose the use of virtual currencies “as private money and as monetary substitutes,” saying that only the ruble can be used to pay for goods and services. Bitcoin.com reported“There is the ruble, and everything else is a substitute,” she said.
Nabiullina said the decision to criminalize the use of bitcoin and other digital currencies as monetary substitutes is aimed at protecting the Russian ruble. “This is necessary to protect the ruble as a single legal tender. [means of] “payment in Russia,” she said.
Central Bank Chairman: Ruble rules, cryptocurrencies drool
Authorities have not specified what the penalties will be for violating the law, but guidelines will be available soon.
“The consequences of violating this principle have not been observed anywhere for many years. The Ministry of Finance has decided to fill this gap,” said Alexei Moiseyev, Deputy Minister of Finance of Russia.
In January 2018, Russia moved to legalize cryptocurrency trading on official trading platforms, saying regulations are needed to protect individuals from scams in the opaque and unregulated Crypto Wild West.
“If we regulate, but not effectively enough, then the government will be responsible for the difficult situations that people may find themselves in,” President Putin said. “For now, it is the responsibility of the person himself, and the government can only say: ‘you can do this, you can’t do that.’ And if everything is still not clear, then there will be problems to solve.”
Russia may launch its own cryptocurrency
Putin had previously said he was wary of bitcoin because cryptocurrencies are not backed by a central bank.
In early October 2017, Putin said that cryptocurrencies could easily be exploited for money laundering and other illegal activities. He even called virtual currencies “pyramid scheme” . ”
A week later, Putin abruptly changed his mind and announced that Russia planned to launch its own cryptocurrency called CryptoRuble in order to circumvent US economic sanctions.
Meanwhile, in the US, the price of bitcoin fell nearly 9% today after the SEC announced it would require cryptocurrency exchanges to register with the agency. (See more: Bitcoin Price Falls as SEC Forces Crypto Exchanges to Register.) It’s a sign that regulatory oversight will intensify – not diminish – in the United States and around the world.
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