Russia bans purchases made with cryptocurrency
Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, has promised to enact new legislation that will outlaw the use of digital currency as payment in that nation. The much-awaited action comes after years of debate over whether to permit cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin between the Russian government and the Central Bank of Russia. This could be bad news for many Russian businesses, which are likely to start using cryptocurrency as a way to get around some of the sanctions put on the country because of its invasion of Ukraine earlier this year.
A translation of the law highlighted on the government’s website by Decrypt (opens in a new tab) reads: “It is prohibited to transfer or accept digital financial assets as a consideration for transferred goods, performed works, or rendered services, as well as in any other way that allows one to assume payment for goods (works, services) by a digital financial asset, except as otherwise provided by federal laws.”
There have been a number of proposals about unregulated coins, and like the Finance Ministry’s initial proposed laws from February 2022, Saturday’s bill prohibits utilizing cryptocurrencies to make purchases or sales of goods. Cryptocurrency trading is not completely prohibited; Russian citizens may still purchase cryptocurrencies. Even though the company has said in the past that it trusts both Bitcoin and Dogecoin, it is now accepting Dogecoin payments for qualified products through a third-party “Dogecoin wallet” from anywhere in the world.
Despite the news, President Putin has previously shown an interest in cryptocurrencies. According to Decrypt, he stated that Russia had “certain competitive advantages,” including a “surplus of electricity,” which gave it a strong foothold in Europe, a continent where many countries depend on its gas supplies. Some of the largest cryptocurrency trading platforms, such as Binance and Coinbase, have also said that they will follow US and EU laws when doing business in Russia.