RACIB President Yuri Pripachkin criticized the government of the Russian Federation for the fact that over the past four years he has not managed to “bring out of the shadows” the cryptocurrency industry in the country.
The President of the Russian Association of Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain (RACIB) said this in a conversation with the publication “RBC-Crypto”. He recalled that on October 21, 2017, Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed the government to amend Russian legislation. They involve defining the status of digital technologies and clearly defining concepts such as distributed ledger technology, digital letter of credit, digital mortgage, cryptocurrency, token and smart contract.
The President decided to formulate requirements for the registration of companies operating in the field of mining and cryptocurrencies, for their activities and the procedure for their taxation. The government was also instructed to develop ICO regulation and submit proposals for creating a “regulatory sandbox” for testing the latest technologies.
When Vladimir Putin gave this instruction, the capitalization of the cryptocurrency market was about $ 200 billion. Four years later, this figure exceeds $ 2.5 trillion. Pripachkin believes that during this time, Russian regulators “have not moved one step” to bring the cryptocurrency industry out of the shadows in the domestic market. According to him, regulators work “only halfway”, and are not interested in solving problems related to the field of digital assets.
The President of RACIB explained that, despite the entry into force of the law “On digital financial assets (DFA) and digital currency” from January 1, 2021, specific rules for the issuance and circulation of cryptocurrencies have not yet been established. In addition, the concept of “smart contract” is not specified either in the current legislation or in the draft laws that are under consideration. With regard to mining, the law “On digital currencies and digital currencies” does not prohibit this type of activity, but it also does not determine the requirements for the activities of persons engaged in the extraction of cryptocurrencies, as well as for the procedure for their taxation.
In March last year, the Ministry of Economic Development presented a bill on the creation of a “regulatory sandbox” within which startups in the field of blockchain and cryptocurrencies can operate. However, according to Pripachkin, not a single blockchain project has been approved by the country’s financial regulators. This is due to the prejudiced attitude of the Bank of Russia towards cryptocurrencies – it considers investments in digital currencies very risky.
So, in July, the central bank said that Russian exchanges should not allow shares of companies related to cryptocurrencies to trade. In September, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation even recommended that the banking system slow down payments sent to exchange offices and cryptocurrency exchanges in order to complicate the procedure for buying and exchanging cryptoassets for citizens. The head of RACIB noted that due to the “vagueness” of the regulation of cryptocurrencies in Russia, their circulation takes place outside the state, although they could work for the development of the Russian economy.
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