The State Duma adopted a crowdfunding bill in the second reading

The State Duma adopted in the second reading the draft law “On attracting investments using investment platforms” (“On crowdfunding”), which also affects the ICO sphere. According to its provisions, investments by unqualified investors will be limited to 600 thousand rubles a year. Reports about it "Parliamentary newspaper".

According to the document, Russian companies and individual entrepreneurs will be able to officially attract money from citizens, individual entrepreneurs and legal entities through crowdfunding platforms.

In this case, the size of the own funds of the platform operator must be at least five million rubles. The register of operators of such sites will be maintained by the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. The fact that the central bank intends to control the sphere of crowdfunding, it became known in 2017.

As expected , the document establishes restrictions for unqualified investors in the amount of 600 thousand rubles a year across all platforms in Russia. Separately, it is noted that the restriction will not affect registered individual entrepreneurs.

So, individual entrepreneurs and legal entities will be able to attract through crowdfunding no more than a billion rubles a year.

You can invest through the provision of loans, as well as through the purchase of equity securities with the exception of securities of credit institutions, non-credit financial institutions, structural bonds and securities intended for qualified investors.

It is noted that if an investment through a crowdfunding platform is carried out by purchasing placed securities, they can be placed only through a closed subscription (Article 24).

One way to invest will also be to buy utilitarian digital rights. In the document, utilitarian digital rights imply the right to demand the transfer of things, the performance of work or the provision of services, as well as the transfer of exclusive rights to intellectual property results or to their use.

Experts note that the bill "inspires some hope," especially compared to the draft law "On digital financial rights."

“Finally, utility tokens (“ utilitarian digital rights ”) are finally settled in some detail, an interesting mechanism of“ digital certificates ”- a new type of securities arising from depositing digital rights, which should reduce risks when digital participants take into account digital rights, ” said the adviser IP / IT practices of Tomashevskaya & Partners, member of the Commission on the Legal Support of the Digital Economy at the Moscow branch of the Russian Bar Association Roman Yankovsky.

Nevertheless, the document still has a number of questions, the expert notes:

“First of all, it doesn’t say a word about cryptocurrency once again – all payment is presumed in cash. Secondly, ICO bypassing the platform is prohibited. At the same time, sanctions for violations (neither administrative nor criminal) are not established. ”

The third reading of the bill is scheduled for tomorrow, July 24.

It is assumed that if adopted, the law will enter into force on January 1, 2020. After this, services for attracting investments through crowdfunding platforms can only be provided by those persons whose details are included in the register of securities.

For those who are already engaged in attracting investment through crowdfunding platforms, there is a transition period – they can bring their activities in line with the new requirements by July 1 of next year.

In addition, today the State Duma unanimously and finally adopted amendments to the "On National Payment System" law, which provide for the prohibition for subsidiaries of international payment systems in Russia to suspend settlements on bank card in its sole discretion.

Recall that on BlockchainJournal there is a separate material on the problems and inconsistencies of the bills “On digital financial assets” and “On attracting investments using investment platforms”.

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