The Russian authorities’ position about ICOs and cryptocurrencies, which has been subject to wide uncertainty and contradictory signals so far, should be clarified at last, according to President Putin’s decision to develop a legislative framework by July 1, 2018.
Following a meeting on October 10 with Finance minister Anton Siluanov, Bank of Russia Head Elvira Naibullina and Qiwi CEO Sergey Solonin, the Russian president ordered the government and the central bank to prepare the required legislative amendments.
Initial coin offerings should be “regulated in a similar way to the regulation of initial public offerings,” while such notions as “distributed ledger technology,” “digital letter of credit,” “digital mortgage,” “cryptocurrency,” “token” and “smart contract” should be defined by law.
The way in which these notions should be “defined” has not been specified, leaving a wide range of options to legalize and regulate them or not.
Taxes for miners and “sandbox” for innovators
The president has also requested government and the central bank to define a legal framework and tax regime for mining activity, as reported by VC.ru.
Putin also wants to create a “sandbox” to test innovative financial technologies, products and services – which he asked to be implemented by December 20 of this year.
In an international perspective, the Russian president envisions the creation of a single payment area for Blockchain technologies across the Eurasian Economic Union (which includes Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan). Putin has asked the Russian government to prepare a plan for such a unification by March 30, 2018.
Last month Siluanov already announced the government’s intention to regulate cryptocurrencies like securities, in a full reversal from earlier proposals to punish people who use digital currencies. Almost simultaneously, however, the central bank issued a public notice on the risks associated with cryptocurrencies and ICOs. “Cryptocurrencies are issued by an unlimited number of anonymous entities. Hence, citizens and legal entities can get involved in illegal operations, including laundering of illegal income and terrorism financing,” the notice read.
