Russia Looks To Legalize Cryptocurrency

Anatoly Aksakov, , the head of the Russian State Duma Committee on Financial Markets, has said that digital money could be used in foreign trade with and in Russia. Cryptocurrency will become legal tender subject to strict controls in Russia as the use of digital assets is growing rapidly.

Aksakov said that “Cryptocurrency traders want to be legalized, as they are ready to work in a legal space because foreign banks are sometimes afraid to interact with Russian banks and conduct settlements with Russia.”

According to Aksakov, digital currencies could be used in foreign trade transactions, and it is necessary to introduce controls to regulate their movement to avoid irregularities.

The use of digital currencies has been limited in Russia due to restrictive legislation including President Vladimir Putin’s 2020 law on digital financial assets, which legalized cryptocurrencies but banned their use for goods and services.

However, Russia’s Finance Ministry has recently pointed to the benefits that digital currencies can offer, such as no correspondent accounts, instant transactions, and practically no compliance procedures, which should be taken into account in foreign trade.

This year, Russia became the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency mining country.

There are no uniform international laws that regulate cryptocurrencies, which are notorious for their high volatility. The most popular crypto, Bitcoin, was worth a fraction of a cent when it was launched in 2009 and shot up to nearly US$69,000 per coin in November 2021. The price of Bitcoin is currently above US$30,000. Russia will be aiming to introduce a stable system of value into new crypto legislation. It has been engineering and testing the technology in different pilot regions of Russia and made it first commercial digital crypto payment in 2020 as part of its crypto development measures.

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