The Ministry of Finance of Russia considers DeFi projects dangerous and unregulated

Deputy Finance Minister Aleksey Moiseev said that he was apprehensive about the development of the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector, as the department does not yet know how to regulate it.

Financial regulators do not yet have leverage on the increasingly popular DeFi projects, the Deputy Minister admitted in an interview with Interfax. Therefore, financial bubbles and fraudulent pyramids are likely to appear in this area of ​​activity:

“The danger is related to the complete lack of control over DeFi activities by regulators. This thing is so, in my opinion, disturbing.”

Moiseev recalled that the Ministry of Finance is proposing its own measures to regulate the cryptocurrency market, but the concept implies the need to “buy cryptocurrency within the existing decentralized system.”

“But this does not move us towards the legalization of DeFi. DeFi is a separate story that requires a separate study, I believe that there are a lot of risks,” the Deputy Minister emphasized.

With the help of DeFi projects, money obtained by criminal means can be easily laundered, Moiseev complained. At the same time, the regulator cannot control the implementation of such draft legislation on combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

So far, the ministry does not have a clear understanding of how exactly to regulate DeFi projects and what requirements to present to them, the official admitted.

“Now, for example, the regulator can say that a bubble is inflating in some financial market, and impose macroprudential requirements on market participants. They will limit banks in issuing loans or introduce increased requirements for capitalization. But in DeFi, this is not possible. And consumer protection there is a complicated story. Who will be responsible for the losses? Moiseev asks.

Recall that on January 20, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation launched a round of public consultations to ban operations with cryptocurrencies in Russia, including trading and mining. In response, the Ministry of Finance proposed the concept of state regulation of the crypto industry in Russia.

Source: Bits

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