Financial Market Committee Chair Aksakov Joins Calls for Identification of Russian Crypto Owners

Anatoly Aksakov, head of the Financial Market Committee at the Russian parliament, has reiterated a warning for cryptocurrency investors and insisted that Russians owning coins should declare their digital assets. The parliamentarian also urged for the comprehensive regulation of crypto mining and taxation.

Russians have put 5 trillion rubles (around $67 billion) into crypto and some of them may lose everything as cryptocurrencies are not backed by anything, Anatoly Aksakov, a deputy with a key role in the regulation of Russia’s crypto space, has recently stated. Many of these people are non-qualified investors and as such, pyramid schemes are likely to occur, added Aksakov who heads the Financial Market Committee at the State Duma, the lower house of parliament.

Repeating previously issued warnings in an interview with the parliamentary Duma TV channel, the Russian lawmaker emphasized that there is no stability in the digital currency market. Crypto prices can quickly move by 20 – 30% in one direction or another, Aksakov noted and elaborated:

Therefore, it is important to regulate the market, to protect, first of all, our citizens, to establish taxation and certain rights for cryptocurrency owners. However, they must be identified.

The statement comes after a similar call was recently issued by the head of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, Alexander Bastrykin. Last week, Bastrykin, who answers directly to President Putin, said cryptocurrency should not remain anonymous, adding that mandatory identification of all crypto users should be introduced in Russia.

Anatoly Aksakov is convinced that crypto holdings must be reported to the state in order to prevent their use to finance terrorism, drug trafficking, and the acquisition of weapons in the first place. Among other reasons, he mentioned taxation — Russians are obliged to pay taxes on their crypto profits even under the current legislation but a dedicated law on crypto taxation is yet to be adopted by the Duma.

The high-ranking member of the house also talked about the need to regulate cryptocurrency mining, which has been spreading in Russia both as a profitable business and as an alternative source of income for private citizens.

Aksakov remarked that if Russian authorities decide to legalize mining, it should be registered as an economic activity and taxed. He further insisted that differentiated tariffs for the energy consumed by mining companies should be introduced in accordance with the cross-subsidization scheme applied in Russia. This would lead to higher electricity rates for miners.

Last month, the leader of Aksakov’s ‘A Just Russia — For Truth’ social-democratic party, Sergei Mironov, urged Bank of Russia to legalize the cryptocurrency market and accelerate the introduction of the digital ruble. In his view, the regulator’s tough stance on the matter hinders the development of crypto technology and makes it dependent on Western payment systems.

Various aspects related to cryptocurrencies, including mining, trading and taxation, remain unregulated in Russia even after the law “On Digital Financial Assets” went into force in January 2021. A working group set up at the Duma is now preparing regulatory proposals to deal with these issues.

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