Prev.
Once again, Russia has a disturbing idea for the industry and local cryptos users. Indeed, the Central Bank of Russia has announced a new proposal that would seek to set an annual cap of approximately $7,800 (BTC 0.68) on purchases of cryptos for everyone in the country, except accredited investors.
In an official statement, the Central Bank proposed that the new cap would come into effect as of January 1, 2021, when the first-ever national law on crypto will be enacted.
Dmitriy Zaikov, a Moscow-based crypto investment adviser, told Cryptonews.com,
“How on earth does the Central Bank think it can implement this measure? I don’t think they understand how many ways the Russians have to buy crypto. Trying to keep track of possible offenders would be an administrative nightmare. I suppose this idea will be put on the back burner or at least significantly changed.”
The Central Bank wrote that “digital financial assets” would be included in its ceiling, which means that Tokenized securities and “stablecoin” holdings, as well as crypto-assets like Bitcoin (BTC), would count in the total.
No limit has been proposed on the amount that professional investors would be allowed to invest in cryptos, Tokenized securities or stablecoins.
For the time being, the measures are only proposals and the Central Bank has stated that it is ready to listen to reactions on the issue until October 27.
The Central Bank and its governor Elvira Nabiullina remain strong voices against crypto in Moscow.
However, after stating last year that there was “no reason” to launch a digital rouble, the Central Bank published a consultative report on digital currencies of central banks (CBDC), saying that while it is still early to discuss a possible timetable for the digital rouble, it is already necessary to start discussions on the issue.
If this does go through, we will probably see a lot of demand for cryptocurrencies coming out of Russia before the new year as citizens enjoy their last few days of unrestricted market movements.