The Russian lawmakers approved the Digital Financial Assets (DFA) bill on July 22 after its third and final reading. The new law gives legal status to crypto in the country, but it prohibits their use for paying for goods and services. The bill had already won backing from senior lawmakers like Anatoly Aksakov, who heads parliament’s financial markets committee. According to the news agency Tass report, the digital finance assets bill recognizes crypto as an aggregate of electronic data capable of being accepted as the payment means.
Crypto can not be used to pay for any goods and services.
Even though crypto is defined as an aggregate of electronic data capable of being accepted as the payment means, but it can not be used to pay for goods and services in the country. Russian citizens retain the legal right to buy and hold bitcoin or any other crypto asset as an investment, but there’s a catch. “Possession of digital currency, its acquisition and transfer by legal means are allowed only if declared,” the law states. The report further noted that Russia’s central bank would assume an important role in regulating cryptocurrencies. The country’s central bank will have the right to determine features of crypto accessible by qualified investors only, the report added.
The earlier version of the draft had proposed heavy penalties for using crypto.
The earlier version of the Digital Financial Assets (DFA) bill had proposed heavy penalties for using cryptocurrencies in Russia. According to the new law, cryptocurrencies can only be issued, purchased, and sold and registered within the framework of special information systems. Operators of those systems shall conform to Russian laws and stand filed in a relevant register kept by the Bank of Russia. The central bank of Russia had cleared its intentions of not liking crypto quite early. The central bank had said that it would support any legislation that would ban the use of crypto.
