Putin Emphasises the Need of Digital Currency Regulation

When it comes down to the status of digital currencies in Russia, President Vladimir Putin has often taken matters into his own hands, thus directly asking legislative bodies to regulate various aspects of the crypto economy.

Now, recent reports indicate that Putin has yet again made a statement, and emphasized on the importance of regulation for digital currencies. He has noted that so far, the National Bank of Russia has had a conservative approach towards regulation, yet there is a reason for this.

According to a statement made by Putin: "In broad terms, legislative regulation will be definitely required in future (…) it is known that the cryptocurrency is not backed by anything. It cannot be a store of value. No material valuables are behind it and it is not secured by anything. It can be a settlement medium to a certain degree and in certain situations. This is done quickly and efficiently.”

"We cannot afford recurrence of the situation with the cryptocurrency, as it happened with deceived equity construction investors. If we regulate and, furthermore, regulate insufficiently effective, then the state will be responsible for the grave situation the people may face."

With this aspect in mind, it seems like the government is considering the idea of not fully regulating digital currencies, as doing so would put them at risk in case something goes wrong. However, at this time, the Ministry of Finance in Russia is working to create a list containing all approved trading platforms available in the country. Additionally, one month ago, the ministry has also drafted a bill on digital currency regulation, thus making it likely for some form of regulation to be implemented in the near future.

Yet, the Finance Ministry is okay with the idea of fully legalizing digital currencies, as long as trading is carried out on official exchanges. While the government does not want to limit or regulate, some limits will have to be imposed, to keep things safe.

Based on everything that has been outlined so far, there has been no other word on the CryptoRuble that Russia is reportedly preparing to release, yet regulation discussions are still underway.