Russia to Change the Face of the Crypto Market and Protect Crypto Traders

It appears that Russia is headed towards protecting crypto users as the Prime Minister of Russia, Mikhail Mishustin brought the issue of protecting crypto users to the fore on Thursday, 26th of November, 2020.

The Prime Minister admitted the government’s “growing interest in this relatively new tool.” According to him, the Russian government is set to supervise the Crypto Market so as to support it to scale in a “civilized direction”. This way, Crypto users will be able to preserve their “rights and interests” as they navigate their way through the Crypto sector.

Mishustin emphasised that this move will adequately prevent scams and illicit “shadow schemes”.

According to the Russian prime minister, Russia’s Tax Legislation will be modified in a way that will regard crypto assets as actual property. This way, the holders of crypto assets will be able to obtain redress in court should they suffer scams and other illegal perpetuations. 

As at press time, Russia’s Ministry of Finance has made recommendations to the Tax Code, a body of legislations that govern how taxable persons are levied in Russia. One of the recommendations is the duty to register the amount of crypto a holder has when his crypto holding hits a particular threshold. 

Severe penalties have also been recommended for persons and organisations who are not compliant.

The present Prime Minister was elected the head of the Russian terrain very recently. Prior to this time, he had been running the nation’s  federal tax agency for about a decade.  

As at the time of writing this piece, Russia still has no concrete and wholesome legal blueprint as regards cryptocurrencies in its landscape. Nevertheless, the country is still making do with the recently signed legislation by President Vladimir Putin.

This new law regulates the disbursement of digital securities and designated crypto as a taxable asset.