Russian Ministries, Duma Want to Legalize Crypto Mining: Report

Crypto mining should be legalized and regulated as an entrepreneurial activity, Russia’s Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Energy and the State Duma said, according to a report from local site Izvestia.

• The ministries and the Duma, Russia’s lower house of representatives, want crypto miners to be recognized as entrepreneurs, Izvestia says. However, the Russian central bank does not support this initiative, citing the risks associated with crypto, according to the report from Monday.
• As of August, Russia is the world’s third-largest bitcoin mining country, after the U.S. and Kazakhstan, according to the Center of Alternative Finance at the University of Cambridge.
• The economic ministry thinks regulation will be beneficial to the country and the crypto industry, and that crypto mining fits well within the definition of entrepreneurship in Russia’s civil code, the report said.
• The institutions want to set up a new classifying code for the industry, which mining firms could use to register their companies.
• The head of the Duma’s finance committee, Anatoly Aksakov, noted that crypto mining is not banned in Russia, but the rules around taxation are unclear. It is necessary to assign a classifying number to the industry and determine procedures for taxation, he said, according to Izvestia.
• Aksakov also suggested the possibility of charging miners higher electricity tariffs than other types of consumers, the report said.

Read more: Russia to Treat Crypto as a Taxable Property