The Ministry of Finance sent to the government of the Russian Federation a draft federal law “On Digital Currency”, which legally prescribes the norms of the concept of regulation of the cryptocurrency market in the Russian Federation, approved earlier by the government.

As follows from the materials posted on the website of the Ministry of Finance, if they successfully pass the test, citizens will be able to invest in digital currencies in the amount of up to 600 thousand rubles annually. If the test is not passed, then the maximum amount of investments will be limited to 50 thousand rubles. “Qualified investors and legal entities will make transactions without restrictions,” the materials say.
The use of digital currencies as a means of payment on the territory of the Russian Federation will continue to be prohibited. As part of the proposed regulation, digital currencies are considered solely as a tool for investment, the message emphasizes.

The bill prescribes the requirements for cryptocurrency exchanges and exchangers. For this, a special register of operators will be created. The requirements relate to corporate governance, reporting, information storage, internal control and audit, risk management system and the amount of own funds. “The activities of such companies will be licensed and controlled by an authorized body determined by the government. Foreign cryptocurrency exchanges will have to register in Russia in order to obtain a license,” the message says.

Operations with the purchase or sale of cryptocurrency will be possible only if the client is identified. Deposit and withdrawal of cryptocurrency from the client to the operator and vice versa will be possible only through banks using a bank account.

“Thus, the identification of customers will be carried out both by operators when accepting customers for service, and by banks when opening a bank account. Operators, like banks, will be required to carry out compliance procedures and inform Rosfinmonitoring of detected suspicious transactions,” the ministry explains.

Exchanges will be required to inform citizens about the high risks associated with the acquisition of digital currencies.

The message also says that for the safety of clients’ funds for crypto-exchanges, a nominal account mode is introduced, on which the funds of bidders will be located. Exchanges and exchangers will be required to maintain registers indicating the addresses – identifiers of each holder of digital currencies. They will also be required to separate the digital currency belonging to them from the digital currency of bidders in the information system.

The collection of debts of the trading platform operator cannot be extended to the cryptocurrency of citizens and companies.

The Ministry of Finance also proposed to consolidate the definition of digital mining as an activity aimed at obtaining cryptocurrency.

As reported, at the end of last week, the Central Bank sent to the Ministry of Finance its package of bills on the regulation of digital mining and the cryptocurrency market in the Russian Federation, in which it proposed to ban both mining and the circulation of cryptocurrencies in the Russian Federation and introduce administrative responsibility.

“The proposals received by the Bank of Russia will be taken into account in further work on the draft law insofar as it does not contradict the approaches of the Russian Ministry of Finance,” the ministry said in a statement.