Russia to Create “CryptoRuble” and Legalize Cryptocurrency Trading

The deputy of State Duma from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Rizvan Kurbanov, has submitted a draft of a bill to the government that would fix a new crypto token called "CryptoRuble" as an official means of payment in Russia.

The explanatory note of the bill states that "the draft of proposed amendments in the law ... fix this digital financial asset as a legal means of payment in the territory of the Russian Federation".

According to reports from local media, the text of the bill also clarifies that this asset is based on distributed ledger technology. It states that the “CryptoRuble” is:

"protected by cryptographic methods and is used by participants of the distributed ledger of digital transactions."

Pay taxes before ICO

In addition to the changes in the Civil Code, Rizvan Kurbanov introduced another draft law on the regulation of businesses related to the issuance and turnover of cryptocurrencies in Russia. In particular, the draft of this law regulates the possibility of charging taxes even on the creation of cryptocurrencies prior to the beginning of their commercial use. In other words, it also means that businesses that have created their own tokens and are wishing to hold an ICO or token crowdsale would have to pay taxes before the successful end of the ICO.

A step to legalize cryptocurrency?

On January 25, 2018, the Ministry of finance of Russia also published another draft law “On Digital financial assets” that assumes that Russian citizens will be able to trade cryptocurrencies and tokens only through trading platforms, brokers, dealers and forex dealers who have the appropriate licenses. 

According to the statement from the ministry, transactions with cryptocurrencies have become highly widespread, and any ban on such transactions would lead this market into the shadows, which could stimulate the use of cryptocurrency for illegal actions and the legalization of incomes that were obtained through criminal means.
However, the ministry added that the development of a draft law that would strengthen the concept of cryptocurrency in the legislation of the Russian Federation was conditioned on the need to preserve the constitutional status of the Ruble as the only legitimate means of payment.