Russia May Seek to Cap Crypto Investments

The Russian government has confirmed claims made earlier this week by the central bank that the forthcoming autumnal session of the State Duma will hold a second reading for the country’s long-awaited cryptocurrency legislation.

However, politicians also confirmed that the bills have been significantly adjusted since their first readings passed in May this year.

For example, the bills will seek to create a legal distinction between professional and non-professional investors – and could seek to limit the amount of money non-professionals can invest in “digital rights” per year, Garant reported citing Anatoly Aksakov, the Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Financial Markets.

He confirmed that the “texts of the draft bills have been substantially refined.”

Aksakov said that all mention of cryptocurrencies and tokens had been removed from the bills, and stated that these would instead be referred to as “digital rights.”

The chairman also stated that the government wants to “protect the buyers of digital rights,” who must be afforded access “to the distributed registries in which these rights are fixed, and retain the possibility of recourse to these rights.”

News agency Tass reports that Deputy Prime Minister Maxim Akimov affirmed that the bills would be read in the coming weeks, after concluding high-level talks with the Chinese government.

Akimov stated, “I think the autumn session will pass a package of bills [including] the draft laws on crowdfunding and on digital financial assets.”
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Weekly LocalBitcoins, a peer-to-peer bitcoin marketplace, volume (in bitcoin) in Russia: