Russian parliament presents bill imposing fines for illegal issuing and trading of cryptocurrencies

The Russian parliament has received a bill that provides for the introduction of fines for anyone engaging in the illegal issuing or trading of cryptocurrencies. The sponsor of this bill has also presented another draft that provides for a ban on the use of digital assets to make payments.

Illegal issuing of cryptocurrencies could soon attract heavy financial penalties

Recently, the lower house of the Russian Parliament (the State Duma) received a new bill on the issuance of cryptocurrencies. The bill stipulates that anyone, groups of people or companies, illegally issuing digital financial assets must pay hefty fines.

It is worth noting that digital financial assets (DFAs) are the legal definition of crypto in Russia. If this bill becomes law, cryptocurrency companies without an operating license from Russian regulators will face hefty fines. The same rule will also apply to platform operators of investment in Russia which do not have a Russian operating license.

Local news agency Forklog was the first to break the news Thursday. The draft proposes a fine of $ 90 (5.000 Russian rubles) and $ 550 (30.000 Russian rubles) for individuals and officials respectively. Forklog also revealed that the financial penalty for legal entities could rise to $ 18.000 (from 700.000 to 1.000.000 rubles).

However, businesses could pay nearly $ 13.000 (about 700.000 rubles) for failing to comply with the Digital Assets Rights Regulation. The head of the parliamentary committee on financial markets, Anatoly Aksakov, is the sponsor of this draft.

The senior lawmaker has actively participated in the development of guidelines for the Russian crypto space. The “digital financial assets” policy is the only guideline for the current Russian crypto space. The legislator approved the draft of this policy as law last January.

Ban DFAs for financial transactions

Earlier this month, Aksakov sponsored an earlier bill to ban the use of DFAs for payments in Russia. Moscow authorities are still discussing introducing further regulations for the cryptocurrency space. However, most members of the legislature strongly believe that the ruble should be the only legal currency in Russia.

However, the growing number of financial sanctions is forcing Russian authorities to allow cryptocurrency payments for financial transactions. The Russian central bank has also shown strong support for this idea. However, he noted that the approval of DFAs for financial regulations should be limited to small businesses.

The central bank has been the main opponent of the approval of DFAs for the settlement of financial transactions. A new change to the “digital currency” bill could include approval for small businesses that could start accepting DFAs as payment.

However, the Ministry of Finance (responsible for drafting the bill) has not yet submitted the new amended draft to the legislator. The Ministry wants to complete the ongoing discussions on the provisions of the bill before sending it to the legislator. However, Russian lawmakers are likely to discuss the law during the fall session of the Duma.