The State Duma adopted a law banning digital assets as a means of payment – Bits Media

Deputies of the State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted in the third, final, reading the law banning payment for goods and services with digital financial assets and utilitarian digital rights.

The initiator of the bill is the head of the State Duma Committee on the Financial Market Anatoly Aksakov, who submitted the document to parliament in June. The chairman of the committee believes, that the adoption of the law will fill the legal void, beneficial to criminal organizations and prevent the use of digital financial assets (CFA) and utilitarian digital rights (UCP) as a means of payment. In this way, in just one month, the bill has passed all approvals and received the status of a federal law.

The law classifies operators of electronic platforms as subjects of the national payment system, which must be registered in the register of the Bank of Russia. Issuers of tokens and operators of investment platforms are instructed to make it impossible for users to independently enter or change records of DFA and DRM when making transactions.

Exchange operators are required to refuse transactions, where there are risks of using DFA and DRM as a monetary surrogate:

“It is prohibited to accept DFA as a means of payment or other consideration for transferred goods, work performed, services provided, as well as another way, allowing to assume payment for goods with a digital financial asset, works, services".

The ban can be lifted in cases, when the consideration given is the thing transferred (product, exclusive rights, work or service provided), the right to demand the transfer of which arose initially.

The law will come into force after approval by the Federation Council and the President of the country.

In June, the head of the State Duma Committee on the Financial Market, Anatoly Aksakov, introduced
in the lower house of parliament a bill on punishment for the release of digital assets without the permission of the regulator. The bill establishes administrative liability in the form of fines.