Russian nationalists hailing from the Liberal Democratic Party are making preparations to introduce a new bill aimed at regulating crypto mining activities in the country. According to the lawmakers, this new legislation would be beneficial to the citizens of Russia as well as the state itself, along with others who are interested in entering the crypto space in a legal manner.
The popularity of these digital currencies, couple with the rise in their market value, has drawn the attention of the lower house of Russian parliament referred to as State Duma. It was noted by Andrey Lugovoy, one of the members of the parliament, that the value of ‘unsecured’ bitcoin had now reached $68,000.
He said that if anyone had invested 1 million rubles in bitcoin three years ago, they would now have made 5 billion. The deputy disclosed that a draft law would be filed by his Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), which pertains to the regulation of crypto mining.
The activity of crypto mining has also expanded in the energy-rich and vast country and it is still developing because there are no comprehensive rules available as yet for this particular sector. Many companies as well as citizens of Russia have been enticed by the profitability of crypto mining and they have joined this industry.
Therefore, Lugovoy said that it was time for the government to regulate this sector and the best way to go about it is through new legislation. The lawmaker stated that they couldn’t just rush right and left. He said that they could either prohibit it completely, make adjustments to the existing law enforcement system but he couldn’t see how this could be done because it was virtual reality, or simply give permission for it.
According to the nationalist, permitting crypto mining would provide Russian citizens with protection, ensure transparency, simplify taxation and also enable the state to control the sector while they continue to increase budget receipts.
The parliamentarian said that entrepreneurs would also have the opportunity of doing their business legally. He remarked that implementing proper regulation is of the utmost importance for areas that have abundant energy resources.
This includes Irkutsk Oblast that has very low rates of electricity. The lawmaker highlighted that the cheap energy available in the region, along with other areas in the country, has attracted a great number of crypto miners. There has been partial regulation of cryptocurrencies in the Russian Federation.
In January, the law called ‘On Digital Financial Assets’ was introduced and even though it did have rules related to ‘digital currency issuance’, there wasn’t any clear mention of crypto mining. There has been growing support in government circles of the idea of legally recognizing crypto mining and officials in Moscow have said that doing so would enable the authorities to tax the profits of the miners properly.
This approach received the backing of Anatoly Aksakov in September, who is the chairman of the notable Financial Market Committee. He revealed that a number of legal amendments would be made in the fall session and they would affect crypto mining.
