Russia is Working Towards Launching a National Crypto Exchange

Lavina Daryanani
Source: Pixabay

Russian lawmakers are working towards launching a national crypto exchange. Both, the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Russia, are on the same page this time and support the initiative.

Reportedly, members of the Duma [the lower chamber of the Russian parliament] have been discussing the amendments pertaining to the country’s existing crypto law on digital financial assets with market participants. Per local media house Vedomosti, a framework chalking out the position of the market will first be prepared and then submitted for discussion to the government and the central bank.

Rules of the game to be tweaked

The start of preparation of the draft amendments would allow the creation of a crypto-exchange in the Russian jurisdiction. The same was confirmed to Vedomosti by Sergey Altukhov, a member of Duma’s Economic Policy Committee. Further outlining why such a move was needed, Altukhov said,

“It makes no sense to say that cryptocurrencies do not exist, but the problem is that it circulates in a large stream outside of government regulation. These are billions of rubles of lost budget revenues in the form of taxes.”

Per Altukhov, it is necessary to create conditions for the legalization of cryptocurrencies and adjust the “rules of the game” that go in the state outline. It’s a known fact that the central bank and the Russian government had several disagreements regarding crypto regulations in the past. The new measure, as such, will not contradict the position of the Central Bank and the government. 

In fact, the committee member also confirmed that the deputies were now discussing the algorithm of actions and “reinforced concrete” arguments for regulators.

It is worth recalling that a host of crypto platforms slashed their support for Russia recently due to its war against Ukraine. In fact, post the involvement of the European Union, prominent exchanges like Kraken, Crypto.com, and Blockchain.com ended ties with Russia-based users.

Read More: EU announces ban against Russian Crypto Assets & Services