Provide Allowing Cryptocurrency Payments in Foreign Trade Added to Russian Invoice – Bitcoin News Regulatory

A proposal to allow companies to use cryptocurrency in cross-border settlements made its way into a bill designed to regulate the crypto space in Russia this year. According to a press report, the Ministry of Finance has made a number of revisions to the legislation that it has been working on in the past few months.

Changes in Cryptocurrency Law Could Make International Coin Payments Possible in Russia

Russia’s Finance Ministry has unveiled its draft law “on digital currency” to reflect various proposals by other government departments and agencies, citing government sources. The amendments were coordinated with the Ministries of Economy, Digital Development, Internal Affairs and the Russian Federal Tax Service and Financial Supervision, Rosfinmonitoring.

The only major institution missing from that list is the Central Bank of Russia, which remains opposed to any legalization of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and is, respectively, at odds with Minfin’s regulatory concept that aims to create a legal market for digital assets. The department’s legislation was first submitted to the federal government in February.

There is a broader consensus among the Russian authorities that cryptocurrency should not be accepted as legal tender in the country. The Digital Currency Act prohibits the use of crypto-assets as a means of payment, but suggests recognizing them as an investment tool.

Vedomosti revealed that a condition introduced with the latest revisions will allow Russian legal entities and individual entrepreneurs to use cryptocurrencies for payments with foreign counterparties. The news comes after Interfax news agency reported earlier that the Finance Ministry is considering this option because Russia’s access to traditional payment channels is restricted by Western sanctions imposed due to the war in Ukraine.

Among other proposals included in the amended law is to ban advertising of cryptocurrency exchanges that are not licensed to operate in Russia. At the same time, authorized exchanges may be obligated to store information about holders of cryptocurrency and their transactions for three years and share the data with Russian law enforcement. Only customers who have passed identity verification will be able to buy and sell cryptocurrencies and only through Russian bank accounts.

Do you expect Moscow to allow Russian companies to use cryptocurrency for their foreign business activities? Tell us in the comments section below.

Lubomir Tasev

Lubomir Tasev is an Eastern European technologist who likes to quote Hitchens: “Being a writer is what I am, not what I do.” Besides crypto, blockchain, and fintech, international politics and economics are other sources of inspiration.