Law on digital assets passed by the State Duma (Lower House of the Russian Parliament) will be in force since January 1, 2021. Experts believe though, the law has a number of loopholes which legislators will have to patch up soon.
As Artem Genkin, expert in the theory of money and financial innovation, Doctor of Economics, Professor, and President of the Center for Protection of Depositors and Investors autonomous non-profit organization, noted at a Zoom conference on digital assets organized by the Invest Foresight business magazine as part of the Engineering the Future Club project, a number of tokens remain uncovered by the proposed law.
“In the future, there will probably be a special legislative act on digital currencies to specify certain provisions of the current law. Yet at the moment, we face the fact that not all of the effective cryptocurrency instruments have been covered in the current act,” the expert said.
In his view, the current law fails to regulate cryptocurrency trade between individuals. In case two individuals decide to make a deal in the cryptocurrencies market, it is still unclear how it should be legally arranged, Professor Genkin noted. The procedures of deals at cryptocurrency exchanges are reasonably clear though.
As Dr Genkin pointed out, some experts suggest expanding the practice of bank deposits insurance onto fiat assets employed for transactions with cryptocurrencies. It may be worth discussing the matter and assessing all pros and cons as well as limits of applying this idea, he said.
According to Artem Genkin, the present-day Russian laws do not specify how an ownership of digital financial asset and digital currencies may be verified in the Russian jurisdiction.
“The law on digital assets passed by the State Duma has stirred contradicting opinions within the expert community, therefore experts and legislators should keep interacting in this regard,” he stressed.