Russian Parliament Introduces Bill To Ban Digital Assets As Payments

Russian lawmakers have in recent months been preparing measures to entirely institutionalize crypto as a possible tool for foreign trade and as a properly taxable investment asset. Now, they seem to want to make it clear that the forthcoming regulatory turn will not include any window for the adoption of digital financial products as a method of payment.

On June 7, the head of the Financial Markets Committee of the Russian parliament’s lower chamber (State Duma), Anatoliy Aksakov, introduced a bill aiming to prevent the use of “digital financial actives” (DFA) to pay for any type of goods and services. This new law would oblige the DFA managers to withhold all deals that implicate the use of crypto as a monetary surrogate.

The cover note specified:

“The ruble is the official monetary unit (currency) of the Russian Federation. The aforementioned article sets a prohibition against the introduction of other monetary units or monetary surrogates on the territory of the Russian Federation.”

Russian Law Does Not Ban DFAs Explicitly

This bill appears to refer to an already existing legislation that does not ban explicitly using DFAs as a method of payment, though de-facto such operations still are not considered legal in the nation. The new document would make the ban official and compel all DFA exchange managers to withhold all deals that implicate the use of crypto as a monetary alternative or surrogate.

Notably, the bill also came up with the concept of an electronic platform which is loosely defined as an investment platform, financial platform, or information system in which digital financial assets are issued. Electronic platforms would then get recognized by the Russian authorities as to the subjects of the national payment system and obliged to submit effectively to the central bank’s registry.

Each major operation with DFAs, their circulation, mission, trade, and exchange, would get its customized registry. The current law on Digital Financial Actives came into force in 2021. Last month the tax amendments on DFAs passed the first reading in the State Duma.

In another development, two other important bills are continuing their journey via the legislative process – a bill “On mining in Russian Federation” is expected to set the guidelines for miners while a bill “On digital currency” would define the Russian regulatory infrastructure framework for cryptocurrency in general.