Russia is getting ready to take Bitcoin and crypto mainstream in the nation with its upcoming crypto legislation. Covered: Russia Is Giving Crypto The Green Light Cold War II Continues Wait – Russia is going to adopt/recognize #crypto assets as currency. The U.S. just seized 3.6B in #bitcoin from this; ?? pic.twitter.com/koEKLpKCV6 — David Gokhshtein […] The post Russia To Recognize Crypto As Currency, Not Digital Assets appeared first on CryptosRus.

Russia To Recognize Crypto As Currency, Not Digital Assets

Russia is getting ready to take Bitcoin and crypto mainstream in the nation with its upcoming crypto legislation.

Covered:

  • Russia Is Giving Crypto The Green Light
  • Cold War II Continues

The US and Russia have been quietly battling behind the scenes over the future of crypto regulation throughout the world. It’s a delicate game of chess being played, as either side’s decision carries significant weight over the other’s response. With the latest crypto regulation proposal in Russia, the US may be forced to respond sooner than its government might have hoped.

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Russia Is Giving Crypto The Green Light

Yesterday, a statement from the Russian government and central bank reveals that the entities agreed to draft legislation that recognizes crypto as an official form of currency.

Kommersant, Russia’s nationally distributed daily newspaper devoted to politics and business, made an announcement on the agreement shortly after.

“The government and the Bank of Russia have agreed on a future regime for the circulation of cryptocurrencies in Russia: by February 18, they will prepare a draft law on the circulation of digital currencies in the Russian Federation, in which cryptocurrencies are recognized as an analogue of currencies, and not digital financial assets.”

Now, I understand the entire report is in Russian, so I’ve picked out some of the key quotes to share with you. According to the release, Russian citizens wanting to use Bitcoin and crypto as a currency will have to comply with the country’s formal identity checks through its banking system or licensed intermediaries. Additionally, it appears that larger transactions will be getting taxed, according to a rough translation:

“Operations equivalent to more than 600 thousand rubles ($8,016) must be declared, [and] transactions outside the legal sector for such amounts will become a criminal offense and an aggravating circumstance under the Criminal Code, for illegal acceptance of cryptocurrencies.”

It looks like the Russian government will be cracking down hard on the illegal acceptance of crypto. The document highlights the ‘Transparent Blockchain,’ which is a tool used to help identify owners of cryptocurrency wallets using open source data, as well as information from the darknet, detect patterns of illegal usage of crypto and serve as a register of addresses related to crimes and terrorism financing. However, this all conversely means that they’ll be legalizing proper frameworks for accepting cryptocurrencies.

“By February 18, the Ministry [of Finance] and the Bank of Russia must formulate either a separate bill or amendments to the law on the CFA and other laws for its implementation. With a high probability, at least part of the new regulation will begin operating in the second half of 2022 or from 2023.”

On February 18th, we should get a clear picture of what Russia’s crypto legislation will look like, and it appears that Russia’s formal legalization of cryptocurrency could take effect within the next year or two. This is massively bullish for the entire crypto space, as fully implementing crypto as currency marks the first instance of a first-world nation to do so.

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Cold War II Continues

The US and Russia have been in a race to establish their presence in the crypto economy. Not too long after Russian President Vladimir Putin called for the legalization and taxation of Bitcoin mining in the country, the Biden administration happened to come out with own statement on digital asset regulation.

Tensions between the two nations regarding crypto have clearly been on the rise over the past couple of weeks, however, Russia appears to be taking that tension up another notch by making crypto a legalized form of currency.

Bitcoin certainly is an exciting asset to hold; watching two of the world superpowers race to crypto supremacy really makes you wonder where Bitcoin and crypto is all heading in the next decade. Sure, there’s plenty of people online telling you what the future holds, but the reality is that we’ll never be 100% right about it, so the best course of action is to sit back and enjoy the show while history unfolds.

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