Blockchain
Russia Legalizes Cryptocurrency Mining, Introduces Experimental Regime
The lower house of Russia’s Federal Assembly, known as the State Duma, passed two cryptocurrency-related laws on Tuesday, a Russia-based policy expert told CoinDesk and Ria Novosti, Russia’s state-owned national news agency. reported.
The first law fully legalizes cryptocurrency mining in Russia from November 1, 2024. Legal entities and individual entrepreneurs registered with the Ministry of Digital Development can engage in mining, while those who are not registered can operate mining facilities only if they do not exceed the limits of energy consumption, Ria Novosti reported.
Supervision of mining activities will be divided between several institutions, with the Bank of Russia apparently having the most power.
The Cabinet of Ministers will independently establish a scope of requirements for the activities of mining infrastructure operators. Other requirements, including those for mining pool participants, will be approved by the Russian government in agreement with the Bank of Russia, the report said.
Miners will also have to provide the authorized government body with information about the digital currency obtained through mining.
The authorized body and the central bank will have the right to introduce a ban or restriction on digital currency transactions to preserve Russia’s monetary stability.
This law also introduces a ban on advertising cryptocurrencies and offering them to an unlimited number of people.
The second law, which will come into force on September 1, 2024, is a special experimental regime that gives the Bank of Russia the power to allow authorized companies to conduct cross-border transactions and digital currency exchanges.
Crypto companies, exchanges and entities will have to apply to the central bank to join this experimental regime, said Anti Danilevski, founder and CEO of Kick Ecosystem.
“The Bank of Russia will be able to conduct not one, but three experiments from September 1 of this year: on the use of cryptocurrency for settlements in foreign trade, on conducting foreign exchange trading in cryptocurrency and on creating an electronic platform for cryptocurrency operations based on NPS,” a separate report said. Ria Novosti report She said.