Russian parliament adopts digital currency bill on first reading

Bank of Russia will be the doorkeeper of the country’s regulated cryptocurrency space under the rules approved by lawmakers in Moscow.

The monetary authority will license market participants, approve or ban crypto transactions, and determine what’s legal and what’s not.

Russian parliament greenlights crypto legalization

The State Duma, the lower house of Russia’s legislature, approved the bill “On Digital Currency and Digital Rights” in its first reading on Tuesday.

A total of 327 deputies voted in favor of the draft law, which legalizes cryptocurrencies and introduces rules for their circulation in the Russian economy.

It also regulates the activities of organizations operating with digital assets, including various intermediaries, exchanges, brokers, banks, and depositories.

Licenses for them will be issued by the Central Bank of Russia (CBR), which will be the main regulator overseeing the market, according to the Russian press.

The monetary authority has been tasked to establish strict requirements for banking institutions working with cryptocurrencies, according to Parlamentskaya Gazeta.

It will also have the power to ban transactions with certain coins for non-credit institutions and to determine the legality of crypto transactions.

Cryptocurrency treated as property, payments banned

The authors of the bill are proposing to recognize digital currency as property, as already done in other Russian laws and regulations.

Using it to pay for goods and services within the country will not be possible, as the ruble, including its digital version, remains the only legal tender.

However, companies and other entities will be able to employ it for settlements in foreign trade under sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Permitted cross-border use cases include payments for the transfer of securities, digital rights, remuneration for work, provision of services, and the transfer of information and intellectual property, as noted by the Russian edition of Forbes.

Russians to be permitted to legally invest in crypto

The new legislation must be adopted no later than July 1, 2026. Amendments can be made before its second reading, within the next couple of weeks.

Once it enters into force this summer, even ordinary Russians will be able to legally acquire digital assets, as long as they do so through licensed intermediaries.

Investors will be divided into two main categories – qualified and non-qualified. The latter will be required to undergo testing before they touch crypto, as noted by Kommersant.

Their purchases will also be subject to an annual limit, which is yet to be determined. The CBR has proposed to set it at 300,000 rubles (less than $4,000 at the current rate).

Only the most liquid and capitalized cryptocurrencies will be available initially. To be admitted to the Russian market, these need to meet the following criteria:

– Market cap exceeding 5 trillion rubles on average for the past two years;
– Average daily trading volume over 1 trillion rubles for the same period;
– Trading history of at least five years prior to inclusion.

These may include only Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL), BNB, TRON, and a few others. The Bank of Russia will be whitelisting the coins for trading.

Framework criticized for being too restrictive

Earlier in April, the “Digital Currency” draft law was reviewed by two important parliamentary committees, and both recommended amendments, the business news portal RBC recalled in a report.

The State Duma Committee on Protection of Competition suggested relaxing requirements for market participants, warning that excessively stringent regulation may undermine the bill’s stated goals.

One of them is to bring the crypto sector out of the shadows. Deputies fear that if the legislation is adopted in its current shape and form, many Russian citizens and firms would simply choose to remain in the gray economy.

Russian banks chimed in, urging the government to soften the rules and admit more cryptocurrencies to the country’s regulated market for digital assets, as reported by Cryptopolitan.

Meanwhile, the Financial Markets Committee called for ensuring judicial protection for crypto holdings, regardless of whether owners have notified the Federal Tax Service of their existence, as currently proposed. Its members insisted this should apply to non-custodial wallets as well.

The main bill is part of a legislative package that also includes amendments to existing Russian laws to introduce criminal liability for illegal operations with cryptocurrencies. Penalties include hefty fines of up to 1 million rubles (over $13,000), and prison sentences that can reach seven years.

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