​Russia’s Ministry of Finance supported the idea of handing over crypto investors’ data to security agencies

What’s new? The Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation has supported a number of revisions to the draft law on the regulation of cryptocurrencies previously proposed by the Ministry of the Interior (MVD), the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Digital Development, the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Justice, the Federal Security Service (FSB), the Federal Taxation Service (FTS), and the Federal Financial Monitoring Service. In particular, advertising of unlicensed cryptocurrency platforms may be banned in Russia, while exchanges and other platforms will be required to provide data at the request of investigators, Izvestia reports.

News on the Izvestia website

What other changes may be made to the draft law? In addition to the requirement to disclose information, the amendments from FSB include agreeing on the terms of storage and protection of information in the circulation of cryptocurrencies with the authorized bodies. The representatives of MVD stressed that the document does not fully regulate the procedure for platforms to execute a court order to seize digital assets, as well as the procedure for creating wallets to store seized cryptocurrency. The proposals of FTS include tightening regulation of unlicensed cryptocurrency wallets and exchanges. In particular, the tax authorities want to ban the advertising of such services on the territory of the Russian Federation.

Izvestia notes that there is still no coordinated position between the departments on the regulation of mining. The Ministry of Finance did not support the FSB’s idea of the mandatory crediting of assets obtained as a result of mining to crypto exchanges. In addition, the Ministry of Finance believes it is inappropriate to introduce “unnecessarily detailed and strict regulation” at this stage of the crypto market’s development, as it may cause an outflow of customers and investors.

What had happened before? On April 27, Andrei Lugovoy, a member of the State Duma working group on the legislative regulation of cryptocurrency said that Russia may become a leader in digital asset extraction. He noted that the Cabinet of Ministers’ upcoming laws should “bring millions of grey miners out of the shadows.”