Russia puts cryptocurrency under a ban

Russian parliamentarians have developed a package of bills that assume administrative and criminal responsibility for the use of cryptocurrencies. Experts believe that such measures can lead to the destruction of the blockchain industry in Russia.

"People who currently own cryptocurrency will be forced to get rid of it before the law comes into force, or risk "going underground", and this is a loss or risk," said Dmitry Kirillov, a senior tax lawyer at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner. Based on the amendments, mining or exchanging 3.5 bitcoins will lead to criminal liability.

Penalties are provided for any use of digital assets, from the organization of a crypto exchange and mining farm, attempts to pay with cryptocurrency on the Internet.  Fines range from 500 thousand rubles ($7,000) for individuals and up to 2 million rubles ($28,000) for legal entities.

Founder of the stable cryptocurrency platform Stasis.net Gregory Klumov called the new amendments "putting nails in the coffin of financial innovation and technological progress."
"In fact, it is proposed to build a new iron curtain in the digital economy with their own hands," said Yuri Pripachkin, president of the Russian Association of Cryptoeconomics and Blockchain.

Currently, in the Russian Federation, in addition to software, the hardware is being actively developed - means for storing tokens, cryptocurrencies. Many young specialists from the Russian Federation are already involved in this industry, and experts are worried that the adoption of this bill will put an end to the innovative economy.

Earlier, E Hacking News reported that, according to First Deputy Chairman of the Bank of Russia, Blockchain is not a panacea, and cryptocurrency is not money. So, the Central Bank of Russia is not going to change its negative attitude to these assets.

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