Russia’s Finance Ministry seeks to ban all cryptocurrency transactions

Mining would still be legal in Russia, but those engaged in the activity will no longer be able to exchange the mined coins for fiat money.

Russian authorities continue to shed little clarity on the regulation of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin in the country, even after passing the first state law.

Russian pro-Bitcoin politicians came under attack in recent weeks

The Russian Finance Ministry has proposed a series of amendments to the law entitled On financial assets, which prohibits many transactions related to cryptocurrencies.

According to Izvestia, the local news agency, the proposed amendments provide for an absolute ban on any virtual money transaction for individuals and individual entrepreneurs, except for three cases. 

The ministry wants to ban all cryptocurrency transactions except obtaining assets through inheritance, bankruptcy, and foreclosure proceedings.

Russia is willing to try blockchain-based voting again despite past drawbacks

The amendments are also in place to prevent miners from receiving payments for mining a coin. Izvestia reports that cryptocurrency mining is legal. However, it loses its financial value because the payment is usually goes processing in Bitcoin and Ether.

The latest news brings even more confusion to Russia’s current legal situation regarding cryptocurrencies. The country finally passed the bill On financial assets in July 2020. After this, local authorities subsequently declared that the regulation would be laid out in another law called On Digital Currency. The DA bill will pass in late 2020. While the law On financial assets is forecast to be adopted in January 2021, banning cryptocurrency payments in Russia.

Authorities blocked top Russian crypto exchange aggregator

In late August 2020, Roskomnadzor, the Russian telecoms regulator, blocked the country’s largest cryptocurrency website, BestChange.ru. By providing an aggregator of around 400 local exchanges, the platform would publish information about purchasing or selling assets such as Bitcoin. Instead, BestChange claims that it has never provided information about these services.