Report: Finance Ministry expects govt to get cryptocurrency bill soon

MOSCOW, Aug 28 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Finance Ministry expects a bill on the cryptocurrency to be submitted to the government shortly, and regulations will be aimed at protecting buyers and sellers of cryptocurrencies legally, Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseyev said on Monday in an interview to the Rossiya 24 television channel.

“There is a point of view that such cryptocurrencies as the bitcoin are a financial pyramid. It’s hard to argue with this point of view. Such investments are highly risky. It determines our approach to their regulation. We suggest regulating them as other property and qualify them as an asset. We think only professional investors could buy and sell them on the bourse,” Moiseyev said.

The Finance Ministry is discussing the matter with the central bank and the Moscow Exchange. “We want people who are qualified investors and want to invest would do that only via the Moscow Exchange,” he said.

“It’s done to ensure protection of rights of buyers and sellers, to ensure the execution of a contract if any party of the contract fails to be reliable. It’s impossible now. Now people do it at their own risk. They don’t have any legal protection. This is our goal number one,” Moiseyev said.

“We see that the number of cases of cryptocurrencies use for illegal operations has multiplied in Western Europe and even in our country. It roots in the fact that mechanisms against money laundering are not applicable to cryptocurrencies. This is our goal number two why the bourse is engaged.

“So that the regulator in the person of the Federal Financial Monitoring Service would know who sells and who buys these bitcoins, because there are precedents when money was laundered via sales and purchases of bitcoins. It must be ruled out,” the official said.

End