Russia may be about to make Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrency mining legal after taking a big step forward in the political process. An important group in the State Duma has approved a plan that will control crypto mining. This means that the whole parliament will be able to vote on it later this month.
According to TASS, the State Duma’s Committee on Financial Markets has asked that the bill be passed by the lower house of parliament on July 23. The bill was made by a group of lawmakers from different political parties. Anatoly Aksakov, the head of the Committee on Financial Markets and a major figure in Russia’s crypto legislation, has given it his strong support.
The bill was made possible by a lot of pressure from Russia’s industrial crypto mining sector, which has been pushing for years for legalization. Legalization would mean that miners would have to pay taxes on the money they make, but it would also bring in possible investors because the law would be clearer about the practice.
Russia’s New Bill Aims to Clarify Crypto Mining Regulations
Crypto mining in Russia is currently in a legal “grey zone,” meaning it is neither clearly legal nor illegal. Power companies can only go after miners who they think are stealing energy. The new law tries to make the rules more clear by giving the Russian government and the Central Bank oversight power and giving the Ministry of Digital Development the power to make sure that the new rules are being followed.
The bill also suggests making a central register for Russian businesses and individuals who want to mine coins. Home-based and smaller-scale miners, on the other hand, would not have to register in order to work, as long as they don’t go over certain limits on how much energy they use. This is a big change from earlier plans, which called for a complete ban on private mining and for power companies to be allowed to go after home miners.
Besides that, the plan includes steps to manage the movement of cryptoassets so they aren’t used for illegal things. Miners would have to tell how much crypto they mined and where they stored it. The anti-money laundering agency Rosfinmonitoring would be in charge of keeping a list of addresses that could be linked to money laundering and funding for terrorism.
The bill not only addresses the worries of the Ministry of Energy and power companies, but it also lets the government ban mining in some areas. The Ministry of Finance has also spoken out. They want to limit access to crypto exchanges to a small group of professional investors and speed up the laws that would let Russian companies do business abroad using digital currencies. This is seen as a possible way to get around Western sanctions.
Experts in the field say that more than 90% of Russian crypto miners work on Bitcoin (BTC). A smaller number also work on altcoins like Litecoin (LTC). Many people in the business are hopeful about the progress of this bill, especially since Aksakov said in March that crypto regulation might not happen until 2025.
As the State Duma gets ready to vote on July 23, people in Russia who mine cryptocurrencies are waiting for what could be a major decision that could change the law and help the sector grow.
