Russia Rejects Crypto Ban, Introduces Roadmap for Regulation

The central bank of Russia is in favour of regulating cryptocurrencies instead of completely banning them, which was called for a few days ago. Instead, the government of Russia is preparing a roadmap for regulating the nascent asset class. Dmitry Chernyshenko, Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, has approved the roadmap for cryptocurrencies which calls for regulating cryptocurrencies instead of an outright ban. The preparation for the roadmap was drafted by a group comprising several government agencies including the Ministry of Finance, Economic Development, Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Digital Development alongside the Central Bank of Russia. According to the proposed deadline, the country should have a compliance control platform for peer-to-peer platforms by May and must adopt the global Financial Action Task Force-recommended anti-money laundering (AML) guidelines by November. By the end of the year, the rules for registration and reporting by crypto platforms should be prepared. The document also calls for administrative and criminal punishment for businesses failing to declare their cryptocurrency transactions. In addition, it also explored the idea of mandating Russian citizens to report on their crypto holdings but has not put any timeline to that. The regulators that participated in the development of the roadmap believe that the cryptocurrency market contains both advantages and risks. Hence, the government co...