Russia wants to start a “national cryptocurrency exchange”

The creation of a national cryptocurrency exchange is being worked on by Russian legislators. According to reports, the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Russia, which have a protracted history of conflict over crypto legislation in the nation, both support this initiative.

The Duma, the lower house of the Russian government, has been in talks with market participants about changes to the country’s current cryptocurrency legislation “On digital financial assets,” according to local media reports from Nov. 23. The central bank will first get a presentation of the revisions, which would establish the legal foundation for a national exchange.

In collaboration with market participants, local legislators are drafting revisions to the current “On Digital Financial Assets” law

The economic wisdom of such measures was emphasized by Sergey Altuhov, a member of the Duma’s Committee of Economic Policy: “It makes no sense to deny the existence of cryptocurrencies; the problem is they circulate in a vast stream outside of governmental regulation. The federal budget has lost billions of dollars in tax income as a result.”

Anatoly Aksakov, the chair of the Duma’s Committee on Financial Market, said in June that Russia may establish a national cryptocurrency exchange as a member of the Moscow Exchange, “a credible organization with extensive history.” On behalf of the central bank, the Moscow Exchange produced a law in September to permit trading in digital financial assets.

A bill that would authorize cryptocurrency mining and the selling of the extracted coins was presented to the Duma earlier this month. The legislation would create a Russian marketplace for cryptocurrency sales, but local miners would also be permitted to use global marketplaces. The latter scenario would exempt transactions from Russian currency controls and rules, but they would still need to be reported to the Russian tax office.

Related

• China Settlements: Russia’s Next Step for the Digital Ruble
• Bank of Russia moves to legalize cryptos for cross-border payments
• EU confirms a ban on providing crypto services to Russians