Russia has introduced a new crypto law to increase state control over digital assets. The new law will result in greater transaction monitoring and tighter infrastructure regulations.
On Friday, October 25, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law to broaden the scope of cryptocurrency regulations. The new law lets the government control crypto mining activities across the nation and also regulates other infrastructure related to it.
The new crypto law that comes into effect from November 1, introduces several amendments to strengthen government oversight on crypto mining. It imposes limitations on mining activities as per the regionals needs. Once this becomes a law, the Russian government can impose restrictions on crypto mining based on location. Also, it can set specific procedures on how to do it and further determine the circumstances banning mining operations.
A critical part of the new crypto law involves the ability to stop digital asset mining pools from functioning in certain troublesome areas. Not just that, the Russian government can further regulate infrastructure providers who support such crypto mining activities. The most pivotal amendment in the new crypto law permits many agencies to access and monitor digital currency identifier addresses. It's no longer restricted to the Federal Financial Monitoring Service (Rosfinmonitoring).
This includes law enforcement and federal executive agencies' ability to track crypto transactions linked with terrorist financing activities and money laundering. This comes at a time when Russian authorities are implicating 24-year-old Valeria Fedyakina, a social media influencer for an alleged $22m cryptocurrency fraud scheme.
With the new crypto law in place, the Federal Tax Service will be responsible for the national mining register instead of the Ministry of Digital Development. The Federal Tax Service will now oversee how businesses register for crypto mining and remove companies with repeated infractions.
This means that crypto companies and entrepreneurs must fulfil new registration requirements, while individual miners can go about their business without registering if they adhere to specific electricity consumption limits.
Earlier in August, the Russian President signed legislation which allowed experimental frameworks for using digital assets in international transactions. Russia is trying to set up a state-backed digital currency, a digital ruble and also legalised crypto mining to bypass the use of the US dollar in foreign exchanges.