Russia's Legislation Regulating Cryptocurrencies to be Submitted Next Week
Several countries and governments around the world have shown a lot of interest in the cryptocurrency market and some authorities have shown interest in regulating this market.
The high price increase experienced by bitcoin in 2017 and the enhanced interest triggered among investors have made some governments hurry to take a stand in relation to the cryptocurrency.
Russia is among the countries which have worked to regulate bitcoin and actually its draft law in relation to this plan is ready. The upcoming law will be focused on bitcoin and fundraising through ICOs and will be submitted on December 28.
The two main authorities who are working on the bill are the Central Bank of Russia and the Ministry of Finance.
While no official statements from the two authorities were available at this point, the president of the association of the regional banks in Russia, Anthony Akasov, decided to comment on the subject. Akasov is also the chairman for the State Duma Committee on financial markets.
Akasov stated that according to the drafted bill, cryptocurrencies will be considered "other property" and they will all be treated the same in Russia:
“Cryptocurrency, thus far, is defined as other property. Until today, the meeting [among regulators and authorities] remains a small circle. There will be a final evaluation before the presentation of the bill. Whatever names they go by, bitcoin or ether, all cryptocurrencies are [to be seen] as other property.”
The cryptocurrency bill will most likely be adopted in March
Akasov also revealed that most likely the bill will end up to the Russian parliament's table at the end of the year, but the bill will definitely not be adopted until the spring. The official said that most likely the adoption will be taking place at the end of March, 2018.
The official did not seem to have a lot of faith in bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market in general, saying that those who purchased cryptocurrencies were deceived and the bill is aiming to protect them:
“[T]he problem is that we already have a lot of people who acquired cryptocurrencies and they are deceived. It is necessary to make possible [the laws] to people legally for this to work, to protect them as much as possible.”
An interesting statement made by Akasov was that cryptocurrencies should not be submitted to value added tax. According to him, cryptocurrencies are financial instruments or assets, thus such taxes would not be applied.
