Russia begins to develop a mechanism for international payments in crypto-currencies

Russian financial authorities have begun work on a mechanism to facilitate the use of crypto-currencies for settlements with other nations amid sanctions. The country’s central bank and finance ministry have already agreed on a draft law regulating cross-border crypto-currency payments.

Regulators in Russia are moving toward legalizing the use of crypto-currencies in foreign trade.

Russian authorities intend to regulate the issuance, circulation and various transactions with digital assets, including international crypto payments, by the end of 2022. The Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank of Russia and the Rosfin supervisory agency are working on the task, the financial watchdog told the daily Izvestia.

“The activities of organizations that will conduct exchange transactions with digital currency, its transfer and storage, and providers of virtual asset services should be subject to regulation, including the registration or licensing of such persons and their supervision“, Rosfinmonitoring explained, adding that their responsibilities should also include the fight against money laundering.

The current version of the bill “on digital currency“, presented by the Ministry of Finance earlier this year and revised with input from other authorities, provides for the establishment of a national infrastructure for crypto asset trading. Now, Russian regulators have turned their attention to the mechanism for settling payments in crypto-currencies in foreign trade.

The Ministry of Finance and the central bank agree on a law allowing cross-border settlements in crypto-currencies.

This week, Deputy Finance Minister Alexey Moiseev revealed that his ministry and the Bank of Russia have reached an agreement in principle on new legislation allowing international payments in crypto-currencies.

Earlier in September, the two institutions concluded that Russia “Cannot do without cross-border payments in crypto-currencies” in the face of growing sanctions. Quoted by the RIA Novosti news agency and the Kommersant business daily, the government official said:

Now we have a draft law already agreed with the central bank. It describes in general how to acquire crypto-currencies, what you can do with them, and how they can or cannot be used, primarily in cross-border settlements.

At the same time, according to a report by RBC Crypto, Alexey Moiseev admitted that the issue of “The entry and exit to the fiat” remains to be resolved. Next, experts will have to determine the minimum infrastructure that Russia needs to create in order to implement such crypto-currency payments.

The Ministry of Finance and the monetary authority have also agreed on a draft law on the crypto mining which will legally define this activity. The deputy minister noted that the question of whether miners should credit digital coins minted on wallets in the Russian Federation or abroad has so far been decided in favor of the second option.