Russia Bill Named on Digital Currency

Russia’s Ministry of Finance (MinFin) has prepared a draft bill titled “On Digital Currency” and sent it to the Russian government for approval before becoming legislation. The draft federal bill outlines restrictions governing cryptocurrency trade and mining.

On April 8, Russia’s finance ministry announced the modification and finalization of an approaching crypto bill, which gives legislative clarity for crypto market circulation, issuance, trading, mining, and other activities.

The growing cryptocurrency community on Twitter greeted the announcement with warm arms. Given the multiple sanctions presently imposed on the country, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao was among the first to recognize the action. As the dust settled, Crypto Twitter quickly realized that they’d been partying a little too soon. CZ and others promptly deleted the tweets hailing crypto’s legal status in Russia.

The hype is surrounding Russia legalizing cryptocurrency triggered by a report from the local Russian daily newspaper Kommersant, which allegedly obtained the authentic final text of the draft law. The bill, which has yet to be passed into law by the Russian government, recommends adopting digital currency “as a means of payment that is not the monetary unit of the Russian Federation.” While MinFin prepared and shared the draft bill with the Russian government, an official announcement regarding the law’s approval is still pending, with no known date.

The bill also advises developing a regulatory framework for crypto-related operations while sharing the groundwork for registered operators.

On April 14, Russia’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Sergei Katyrin suggested partnering with African countries to perform cross-border settlements in crypto and central bank digital currencies. In a declaration about the finalized bill, the ministry stated that it simplified crypto legislation while taking into account the views of all other departments of the Russian government.