on the crypto
Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, convinced the Russian court accusing it to take its platform off the website blacklist.
The Russian court withdrew the complaint against Binance
Binance has been blocked in Russia since last June when a court in the Arkhangelsk region ruled in favor of local prosecutors, saying the company was helping to distribute bitcoin information (quotation BTC), and that the cryptocurrency is not regulated.
"The issuance and use of bitcoins are completely decentralized and there is no way to regulate them by the government, which contradicts current Russian law," read the September court decision. However, according to Gleb Kostarev, a Russian representative of Binance, the exchange was not informed of such legal proceedings and found it was blacklisted by Internet censorship agency Roskomnadzor only three months later.
This prevented Binance from being able to adequately defend its rights in court. After Binance challenged the decision, requiring a regular trial, prosecutors withdrew their complaint, indicating the new court ruling.
Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are not illegal in Russia
The country's law on digital assets, which came into effect on January 1, recognizes cryptocurrencies as taxable property and regulates the issuance of centralized digital tokens in the country. President Vladimir Putin also signed an order under which public officials must report their crypto holdings.
The country's central bank has also published a directive limiting the amount of digital assets an unqualified investor in Russia can purchase to no more than 600.000 rubles in a year (about $ 7.740). The rules on how Russians should report their crypto holdings for tax purposes are still being finalized.
Blocking of websites in Russia
Mike Tretyak, partner of the law firm Digital Rights Center, which represented Binance in court, said Russia has blocked cryptocurrency-related websites in Russia since 2015 and resources such as the localBitcoins p2p (peer-to-peer) marketplace. the EXMO exchange, the OTC aggregator BestChange and the crypto news channel Bits.Media were all stalled at some point.
“In all these cases there are no victims, complaints are presented without any violation of the law per se, as the dissemination of information on cryptocurrencies is not prohibited and does not constitute an administrative or criminal offense. Finally, the selection of websites to block is completely arbitrary on the basis of “internet monitoring”, which means that any crypto website can be blocked at any time if a local prosecutor so desires, ”Tretyak said.
However, fighting such decisions in court can be difficult as most judges don't understand cryptocurrencies and tend to compromise with prosecutors, he added.
