Cryptocurrency Trading Legalized By Russian Finance Ministry, But Central Bank Disagrees

Today, the local media TASS reported, that the Russian Finance Ministry (MinFin) has presented a regulation bill to establish cryptocurrency trading, ICOs and mining.

However, the Russian Federation central bank disagrees with Ministry of Finance on the issue, that cryptocurrency exchanges should be legalized. Central Bank authorities only said, that the trading rules should be accepted only for tokens to attract investors.

The cryptocurrency and tokens represent a digital financial asset which are not allowed to be used as payment in Russia, according to the bill’s conditions.

MinFin claims to protect the rights of unqualified investors by allowing trading only via authorized cryptocurrency exchange operators.

Concerning ICOs, tokens can be issued by legal entities or sole proprietors for the purpose of fundraising. ICOs must be accompanied with some legal documents disclosing the details of the contract such as issuer’s full name, location, official website and price of a token.

The document says that professional investors are not allowed to invest above 50,000 Rubles, which is the same as $900 for each ICO.