Russian Finance Ministry Wants to Lower Citizens’ Barriers to Crypto Market Entry

The Russian finance ministry says it wants to make it easier for citizens to access the crypto market, calling for a reduction in Moscow’s income threshold for crypto traders.

The Russian news outlets RBC and Interfax reported that the comments came from Alexey Yakovlev, the Director of the Financial Policy Department at the Ministry of Finance.

Yakovlev suggested that to “improve the quality” of the Central Bank’s supervised crypto trading pilot, “more participants need to access the project.”

The Central Bank and the ministry have been at loggerheads on crypto-related matters for several years. The ministry has previously pressed for more regulations and taxes for crypto exchanges and traders.

But the bank has repeatedly called for a total ban on crypto trading and the outlawing of crypto trading platforms.

Last year, President Vladimir Putin ordered the parties to strike a compromise. Moscow has also begun a crypto pivot that has seen it use tokens like Bitcoin (BTC) as a payment tool in cross-border trade deals.

Putin also called for parts of the country with idle energy reserves to actively engage in crypto mining.

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The Central Bank has responded by creating what it calls an experimental legal regime (ELR) for crypto traders.

The ELR is essentially a sandbox for companies that want to use crypto in place of the US dollar in trade deals.

But it also allows “highly qualified” investors to buy and sell crypto under the bank’s supervision.

Only individuals with large personal fortunes have been allowed to trade crypto in the ELR.

Traders must hold securities and deposits worth over 100 million rubles ($1,231,648) or prove that their income for the previous year exceeded 50 million rubles ($615,753). But the ministry says that this must change.

According to some Russian estimates, average monthly salaries in the nation range from $700 to just over $1,200.

Yakovlev did not specify how much the ministry would like to reduce the threshold by. But he said that “a downward adjustment is currently being discussed.”

The ministry official hinted that while the ministry still thinks some sort of thresholds should remain in place, it thinks that restricting ordinary citizens’ access to the ELR is self-defeating.

Yakovlev added that the original plans for the ELR specify a three-year time limit, after which the ministry and the bank will create “permanent” regulations for the market.

As such, he said, “We must involve a larger number of participants in order to test all the processes involved.”

Restricting testing to “a super-small layer” of society would not help the ELR fulfil its intended function, he added.

The Russian FinMin said its oil and gas revenues in August were short of 10.5 billion rubles and expected a further shortfall of 21 billion rubles in September. Thus, to close the deficit, the ministry will again have to sell foreign currency — 31.5 billion rubles per month.

Oil…

The Central Bank has long maintained that “unqualified investors must enjoy maximum protection” from the “high-risk” crypto market.

It has proposed banning all crypto transactions outside the ELR, establishing criminal liability for non-compliance.

However, there is evidence to suggest the bank is becoming increasingly isolated in its stance on the matter.

The Moscow Exchange has begun offering qualified investors access to a range of securities tied to the price of overseas crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Some Russian brokers and commercial banks have also begun exploring similar business avenues, in addition to crypto derivative offerings.

Yakovlev added the Ministry of Finance also wants to use the ELR to expand the range of assets companies can tokenize.

He suggested that issuers could get the green light to release coins tied to real-world assets, intellectual “activity,” and corporate rights in limited liability companies.

The ministry official said that Moscow may look to token-powered smart contract technology to boost investors’ options.

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