Covered: New Details on Russian Regulation of Crypto Regulation is Toleration Russia Entrenched In Bitcoin Mining Russia Regulating Crypto The Russian Parliament’s upper house, the Federation Council, has announced the details behind the creation of a “working group” that will collaborate with others in the government and private sector to “develop the further regulation” of […] The post BREAKING: Details Emerge of Russian Effort to Regulate Crypto, Sentiment Appears Positive appeared first on CryptosRus.

BREAKING: Details Emerge of Russian Effort to Regulate Crypto, Sentiment Appears Positive

Covered:

  • New Details on Russian Regulation of Crypto
  • Regulation is Toleration
  • Russia Entrenched In Bitcoin Mining

Russia Regulating Crypto

The Russian Parliament’s upper house, the Federation Council, has announced the details behind the creation of a “working group” that will collaborate with others in the government and private sector to “develop the further regulation” of crypto. The working group has been speculated in the last couple of weeks, but the details emerged last night. 

This is a very positive thing because a truly intolerant sentiment on crypto by the Russian government would negate the formation of such a group in the first place. The Council has already indicated last month that crypto “probably has a future” in Russia, and they appear to be moving forward with that notion. Russian’s themselves appear to be ready, with more than 1 in 10 owning crypto.

Data from Triple-a.io

Speaking to Ura.news last month, the Deputy Chair of the Federation Council’s Budget Markets Committee, Yelena Perminova, said of crypto: “Probably, there is a future for them. Probably, they will amount to something.” She mentioned that the Council was analyzing the role of cryptocurrencies in the financial markets.

Recommended: Russian Billionaire Urges Russia to Accept Bitcoin

The Council details were announced during the 2021 Finopolis forum, which is currently taking place. The Deputy Chair of the Federation Council, Nikolai Zhuravlev, said the new working group will include dozens of major Russian authorities. It appears the details emerged during the below session of the forum.

The most notable are the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of economic development, Parliament, the Central Bank, Tax authorities, AML authorities, and most notably, players in the domestic crypto industry. These players are likely Bitcoin miners, who have a large business in the country, where energy is cheap and abundant.

Working Group To Regulate Crypto In Russia

This working group appears to be more broad, dynamic, and collaborative than original reports indicated. Nikolai Zhuravlev said today that while the country has banned crypto for payments, a “debate” with the group must be had about “operations involving cryptocurrency.”

Russian mining farm in the Arctic

The group seeks to bridge the divide between the staunch anti-crypto entities in the country, like the Central Bank of Russia, and the more pro-crypto, pro-business forces in the government and private sector. Russia banned crypto for payment purposes a year ago. However, it is legal to own them and mine them.

Putin appears to have softened his stance on crypto. As Reuters reported, in October of this year, Putin said that while they are too unstable to “settle oil contracts, they still deserved a place as a means of payment.” Much like in the US, Russian authorities who have a more positive crypto stance said at the forum that a lack of clarity makes it hard to move forward.

It appears the group is intent on creating a pro-business framework for crypto and crypto operations, because again, banning crypto doesn’t require a working group. It’s easy to surmise that a working group means regulation, and regulation means stepping forward towards the embrace of crypto–to what extent remains unclear.

Russia Entrenched In Crypto

As touched on above, Russia is already more entrenched with crypto than most countries. As of October, their Bitcoin hash rate is only second to the United States and Kazakhstan, clocking in at 11%, as seen below.

Long story short, more good can come of this working group than bad. The head of the parliamentary Finance Market Committee Anatoly Aksakov said as much when news of the working group surfaced a couple of weeks ago, saying that the grey area around crypto in Russia should be solved by this group and said:

“It [crypto] needs to be discussed, analyzed, legislatively and normatively regulated. Therefore, in my opinion, the decision [to create the working group] is right.”  Aksakov has also been a proponent of Bitcoin mining, saying it ought to be “registered as an entrepreneurial activity” in September.

Who knows, maybe Russia will have a regulatory framework for crypto before the United States. After all, the financial authorities in this country are no less power-hungry than Russia’s and no more inclined to innovation.

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The post BREAKING: Details Emerge of Russian Effort to Regulate Crypto, Sentiment Appears Positive appeared first on CryptosRus.