Russia proposes to equate digital assets to securities

The Center for Strategic Research also considers the option of creating separate legislation for NFTs

29.07.2022 - 08:15

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2 min

What’s new? Russia’s Center for Strategic Research (CSR) has proposed applying securities legislation to digital assets. According to the organization’s report, which was reviewed by Vedomosti, the CSR correlated cryptocurrencies with traditional financial instruments and concluded that many of them should be considered a special way of accounting for securities (using blockchain). Also, the CSR considers the option of developing a separate legal regime for non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Material by Vedomosti

What else is known about the CSR’s plans? Maxim Bashkatov, head of the “Pravovoye razvitiye” direction, explained that it is proposed not to refer NFTs to the types of digital assets already known by Russian legislation. He also explained in a conversation with TASS that there is not worth trying to equate NFTs to the results of intellectual activity.

In May, deputies from the New People Party submitted a draft law to the State Duma that proposed recognizing NFTs as objects of intellectual property. However, Bashkatov considers the idea of equating such tokens to inventions or objects of art to be “questionable” because when issuing NFTs under already existing objects “does not create an additional creative contribution.”

In June, the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia began to develop rules for the regulation of NFTs. The department proposed to establish legal status for tokens and determine the rules of their issue within the country. The department plans to amend the law “On Digital Financial Assets” and the Civil Code.

Earlier, US SEC chief Gary Gensler said that most crypto assets fit the definition of securities and therefore should be controlled by his agency.

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