Presidentier Ruckib: “cryptocurrencies in Russia still remain in the shadows” – Bits Media

RACIB President Yuri Pripachkin criticized the Russian government for, that over the past four years he has failed to “bring out of the shadows” the cryptocurrency industry in the country.

The President of the Russian Association of Cryptocurrency and Blockchain talks about this (RAKIB) stated in a conversation with the publication "RBC-Crypto". He recalled, what 21 October 2017 Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed the government to make changes to Russian legislation. They involve determining the status of digital technologies and clearly defining such concepts, as "distributed ledger technology", "digital letter of credit", "digital mortgage", “Cryptocurrency”, "token" and "smart contract".

The President decided to formulate requirements for registration of companies, working in the field of mining and cryptocurrencies, to their activities and the procedure for their taxation. The government was also instructed to develop regulation of ICOs and submit proposals for creating a “regulatory sandbox” for testing the latest technologies.

When Vladimir Putin gave this instruction, The capitalization of the cryptocurrency market was about $200 billion. Four years later, this figure exceeds $2.5 trillion. Pripachkin thinks, that during this time Russian regulators “have not advanced a single step”, to bring the cryptocurrency industry out of the shadows on the domestic market. According to him, regulators only work halfway, и не заинтересованы в решении задач, касающихся сферы цифровых активов.

Президент РАКИБ пояснил, what, несмотря на вступление в силу закона «О цифровых финансовых активах (CFA) и цифровой валюте» с 1 january 2021 of the year, конкретные правила для выпуска и обращения криптовалют до сих пор не установлены. Besides, понятие «смарт-контракт» не указано ни в действующем законодательстве, ни в законопроектах, which are under consideration. Regarding mining, The law “On digital currency funds and digital currencies” does not prohibit this type of activity, but does not determine the requirements for the activities of persons, engaged in cryptocurrency mining, as well as the procedure for their taxation.

In March last year, the Ministry of Economic Development presented a bill to create a “regulatory sandbox”, within which startups in the field of blockchain and cryptocurrency will be able to work. but, according to Pripachkin, not a single project, working with blockchain, was never approved by the country's financial regulators. This is due to the biased attitude of the Bank of Russia towards cryptocurrencies - it considers investments in digital currencies very risky.

So, in July the central bank said, that Russian stock exchanges should not allow company shares to be traded, associated with cryptocurrencies. In September, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation even recommended that the banking system slow down payments, sent to exchange offices and cryptocurrency exchanges, to make it more difficult for citizens to purchase and exchange crypto assets. The head of RACIB noted, that because of the “foggy” regulation of cryptocurrencies in Russia, their circulation occurs outside the state, although they could work for the development of the Russian economy.