The Bank of Russia has published several regulatory proposals that clarify how the central bank will regulate digital assets in the country.
Place a purchase limit for unskilled investors
Russia has already recently passed a law on issuing digital securities, which includes cryptocurrencies. The most important aspect of this law is that the Russian central bank wants to limit the amount of digital assets that unskilled investors can buy in a year.
According to the proposal, published a few days ago by the Bank of Russia, unskilled investors would be allowed to purchase no more than 600.000 rubles of digital assets in a year, equal to about 6.580 euros.
As for qualified investors, they will not have to respect this limit. The Bank of Russia expects to have public feedback on the proposal by 27 October. To be considered a qualified investor and be able to buy bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, one of the following five criteria must be met:
- Have a net worth of not less than 6 million rubles (~ 65.800 euros)
- Own securities for a total of over 65.800 euros
- Have experience of working in a finance company for a minimum of two years
- Regularly trade significant quantities of securities
- Have a business degree
A regulation for the future of digital assets in Russia
This only applies to digital assets issued by companies registered with the country's central bank, not cryptocurrencies. "This document only touches on digital assets that will be issued under the new digital assets law," said Russian cryptocurrency lawyer Mikhail Uspensky.
“Such tokens don't exist yet, so the document is written for the future. The law will only come into effect in January [2021] and cryptocurrencies are not mentioned at all, ”he added.
The Bank of Russia has also published a separate proposal on how digital asset issuers should register to legally issue tokens, a document on how it will issue e-signature keys for such companies, and another which states that digital asset issuers will be subject to the same relative rules in their accounting practices as other financial companies.
Russia's leading financial regulator recently stepped up its work on digital assets: on Tuesday, the Bank of Russia released a report on the potential launch of its central bank digital currency (CBDC), the digital ruble.
The details of the project and any launch times will be determined shortly by the relevant authorities. The report explains that the digital ruble will be designed to make payments "faster, easier and safer."
Furthermore, the central bank stressed that a CBDC like the digital ruble will reduce the risk of capital flight: "The national digital currency will also limit the risks of reallocating funds into foreign digital currencies, contributing to macroeconomic and financial stability."
