Aksakov: the law on cryptocurrencies will not go to the State Duma in the near future

The Russian authorities continue to discuss options for regulating the cryptocurrency market and expectreceipt of the bill «On digital currencies» not worth it. This was stated by the head of the State Duma Committee on the Financial Market, Anatoly Aksakov, writes «Parliamentary Gazette».

According to him, the authorities are already considering the third version of the draft law on the regulation of cryptocurrencies:

“I don’t think that the document will appear in the State Duma in the near future. The situation in the cryptocurrency market does not add optimism either: bitcoin has collapsed a lot against the backdrop of sanctions decisions.”

Aksakov believes that the bill on regulation of cryptocurrencies will be adopted in a «hard» option.

According to media reports, the Ministry of Finance finalized the document taking into account comments from various departments. 

The bill now contains an articleallowing the use of cryptocurrencies as a means of payment in the foreign trade activities of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs. It is assumed that they will be able to conduct such transactions by obtaining an "identifier provided by the operator of the digital trading platform."

The document also spells out the obligation of bitcoin exchanges and exchangers to cooperate with law enforcement officers and store information about users and their operations for three years.

It is reported that the norms on the volume of investments in cryptocurrencies for legal entities and «professional acquirers» digital currencies.

The provisions relating tomining. For example, the requirement to be included in a special register of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs engaged in the extraction of cryptocurrencies, as well as the description of the transfer of information to the tax authorities, has disappeared.

Aksakov believes that the US authorities have begun to «squeeze» crypto market due to the hypothetical use of Bitcoin to circumvent sanctions:

“There are suspicions that American intelligence agencies inlargely control this market, so there is no desire to fall under their invisible or visible eye when carrying out financial transactions.

He also admitted that in the Russian Federation they would create one centralized platform for conducting operations with crypto assets.

Recall that the draft law “Ondigital currency” provides for transactions with crypto-currencies through Russian banks, identification of holders of crypto-wallets and separation of investors by qualifications.

In April, the ministry changed the terminology of the document. Later it became known that it also supported a number of proposals of the FSB, the Federal Tax Service and the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the bill.

In May, Ivan Chebeskov, head of the financial policy department of the Ministry of Finance, admitted that cryptocurrencies could be used by Russia in international settlements.

At the same time, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation recognized the impossibilityevasion of sanctions with the help of cryptoassets. Analysts from the international rating agency Moody’s also believe that digital currencies will not help the Russian Federation to circumvent sanctions.