Central Bank of Russia will impose restrictions on the purchase of cryptocurrency, comments State Duma

The Central Bank of the Russian Federation expects to introduce a certain limit for citizens to purchase digital currencies.

It clarifies the agency RBC, referring to the Central Bank amendments to the draft law on cryptosphere, unqualified investors will have the opportunity to acquire cryptocurrency , but the regulator proposes to prohibit the purchase of tokens in excess of the established quota.

Anatoly Aksakov, who heads the State Duma Committee on the Financial Market, said that the regulator had already sent a proposal to introduce a limit on the purchase of cryptocurrency to parliament. In the near future, deputies of the lower chamber will discuss the feasibility of adopting these amendments.

It is worth noting that Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded that the parliament speed up work on adopting a law on regulating relations in the cryptocurrency industry. The State Duma deputies should accept this document until the beginning of July of this year.

In the near future, the regulator plans to agree with the parliament the maximum amount of coins that an unqualified investor can acquire. It is quite possible that the Russians will be able to spend no more than 600 thousand rubles annually for the purchase of tokens, this is exactly the amount that is spelled out in the crowdfunding bill.

When forming the limit, the regulator will be guided by such criteria as – the amount of fiat money spent on the purchase of cryptocurrency and the total value of digital assets transferred to the platform.

In the State Duma explained what the limit on the purchase of cryptocurrency means

Anatoly Aksakov commented on this initiative. According to him, restrictions on the purchase of cryptoactive assets by Russians, who are not qualified investors, will affect only participation in the ICO. In an interview with TASS, the head of the State Duma Financial Market Committee said:

“In fact, there was some kind of misinterpretation. I meant that there may be restrictions on investing in projects that are hosted through investment platforms, including the use of blockchain technology . The point was to protect our unqualified investors from investing in risky projects, because the investment platform will use a more liberal mode of placing financial assets than, for example, the stock exchange. ”

However, the deputy did not rule out that restrictions in the future could also affect cryptocurrency, but so far “such approaches”, he said, are not being worked out. Aksakov explained:

“Cryptocurrencies, if we mean, for example, Bitcoin, here we are at the initial stage of regulating the issue. The law “On digital financial assets” will be the starting point, but so far we have not approached the approaches to regulating this topic. ”

Today, in an interview with Izvestia journalists, Murad Salikhov, Advisor to the Board of the Financial Innovations Association, stated that the Central Bank’s attempts to limit cryptocurrency purchases by unqualified investors are aimed at “suspending financial transactions that are conducted without government control through a system in which there were no clear boundaries and rules. ”

“The top line of the volume of cryptoactive assets for unqualified investors will be 600 thousand rubles. This and other measures that are currently being taken in Russia in an attempt to control the blockchain and the systems associated with this technology are being introduced to regulate digital civil rights objects , ”said Salikhov.

According to him, we are talking about rights, since the concepts of “digital money” and “digital currency” will not exist in Russia in the near future. This will only complicate the process of legalizing the cryptocurrency industry in Russia, the financier noted. He explained:

“Now the cryptobranch and, accordingly, the turnover of funds within it are still semi-legal, therefore restrictions on purchases of cryptocurrency and approval of digital rights, which are now first read, are introduced solely to stabilize the situation and suspend the pace of financial transactions that are carried out without government control. a system that has not yet established clear boundaries and rules. ”

Today, Anatoly Aksakov, answering the questions of deputies in the State Duma, said:

“We do not introduce the concept of digital money into legislation and are not going to introduce it yet. We removed this concept in preparation for the second reading of the draft law “On digital financial assets”. There are fears that this electronic money may “erode” our monetary system, create a lot of problems, and, as we see, the situation in the cryptocurrency market is unwinding now not in favor of such currencies, the “hyip” is passing, and life shows that we really need to act carefully. We will continue to debate. Now the FATF Commission (the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering) is working in Russia, and in cooperation with the FATF Commission, we will propose a bill that will propose regulation of cryptocurrency, but what regulation it will be is not yet clear. ”

Publication date 13.03.2019
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