Russia’s State Duma received a bill governing the mining and subsequent selling of cryptocurrency in the region on November 18th. With effect from January 1st, 2023, the bill would let crypto miners sell their digital currency on global marketplaces as well as within Russia.
Cryptocurrency is rapidly expanding in Russia as the country’s government reviews and analyzes its laws and regulations concerning this quickly rising digital currency.
Over the past few years, Russian government agencies have struggled desperately to develop a unified digital currency strategy. They prohibited its use in transactions despite being considered property according to laws governing digital assets.
According to the TripleA report, 10.1% of Russia’s population, or around 14.6 million people, currently holds cryptocurrency. Ethereum, owned by 32% of Russian cryptocurrency owners, is the most popular digital asset among them. With just 30.8%, Bitcoin is barely in the second position.
The report reveals that Russia took two significant actions in September: first, it was reported that cryptocurrency mining would be permitted in areas with nuclear and hydroelectric power.
Second, the Central Bank of Russia approved using Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other digital currencies for cross-border payments.
Crypto Miners Have Two Ways To Sell Their Coins
Now, the new bill defines digital currency mining as activities to conduct mathematical calculations using “distributed ledger technology to create a digital currency and receive remuneration in digital currency.” Mining pools are introduced and defined in the bill too.
In a statement, the press service of the Duma Financial Market Committee stated that the government of the RF would work together with its Central Bank to establish guidelines.
It will be established for individual and business entities who engage in cryptocurrency mining – both individually and through ‘mining pools’- while oversight of those guidelines will be delegated to a federal body authorized by the Russian government.
Per the proposed bill, transactions involving digital currency made on overseas marketplaces are exempt from the laws governing currency regulation and control. Therefore, it provides cryptocurrency miners with two options for selling their cryptocurrency:
through foreign systems without having to comply with the law on currency regulation and through a platform that will be created in Russia under the experimental legal regime. In both cases, transactions will have to be reported to the Federal Tax Service.
However, the bill also restricts the promotion or sale of digital currencies in any way, with the exception of mining.
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