The Central Bank of Russia is pressing to ban the use and circulation of cryptocurrencies in the country
The Russians They will not be able to trade or circulate cryptocurrencies not issued by the country's central bank if the latest draft law "On digital financial assets" were adopted as a legal framework in Russia.
This is according to the head of the legal department of the Bank of Russia, Alexey Guznov, who spoke to the Russian media Interfax in an interview published Monday, March 16.
Guznov revealed that the BoR has been actively participating in discussions on the bill that will regulate the use of cryptocurrencies within Russia. The original bill was passed for first reading in 2018 and has since undergone several amendments.
Initially, it stipulated that cryptocurrencies would be legal to circulate in the country as long as they followed certain regulations that would be included in the law. However, the BoR apparently has the idea that the use of cryptocurrencies represents a risk to the country's financial system. In the interview, Guznov explained that,
“In terms of the functioning of the financial system and the consumer protection system, the legalization of the issue and the facilitation of the circulation of cryptocurrencies is an unwarranted risk. As such, the bill explicitly prohibits the issuance and organization of the circulation of cryptocurrencies, introducing legal liability for violating these rules. "
The latest bill promises to be controversial, to say the least, since prohibiting the use and circulation of cryptocurrency would be detrimental to a nascent and nascent industry within the country.
"We believe that there are great risks of legalizing operations with cryptocurrencies, from the point of view of financial stability, the prevention of money laundering and consumer protection," Guznov insisted.
When asked if there was consensus on the latest draft, Guznov admitted some objections within the parties to the discussion. However, he reiterated that the BoR's position was about safeguarding the stability of the financial system and combating money laundering efforts by criminals who unfortunately found cryptocurrency to be a formidable tool in their arsenal.
"There were other suggestions," Guznov told Interfax. “Now we are approaching consensus with the market and other participants in the discussion. It may consist of the fact that nobody will prohibit owning digital currency. This is absurd to a certain extent, well, and in general this is not the reason, they are not yet drugs or weapons ».
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