Two crypto exchanges will appear in Russia — one of them will be based on the St. Petersburg Currency Exchange with a focus on foreign economic activity, while no decision has been made on the other. This was reported by Kommersant, citing informed sources.
The second platform may appear in Moscow. The question is being decided whether the Moscow Exchange infrastructure will be used as a basis or a separate platform will be created.
Exchange participants are expected to focus on stablecoin transactions, in particular those based on the yuan and the BRICS currency basket.
According to BitRiver Deputy CEO for Communications Oleg Ogienko, "stable coins" can be interpreted as cryptocurrency. For this reason, certain difficulties arise - both technological in the Russian blockchain, and in terms of asset convertibility, liquidity set, and binding to the means of security.
“There is a point of view that stablecoins are digital financial assets in terms of Russian legislation due to the presence of an emission center and an obligated party,” he added.
Yaroslav Shitsle, Head of the IT&IP Dispute Resolution Department at the Rustam Kurmaev & Partners law firm, explained that Federal Law No. 259 “On Digital Financial Assets” establishes the legal basis for the issuance and circulation of digital financial assets, but does not contain direct rules governing the activities of crypto exchanges.
“In this regard, there is still no clear and unified mechanism for their creation and operation,” the lawyer added.
According to Mikhail Uspensky, a member of the State Duma expert council on legislative regulation of cryptocurrencies, such platforms must currently comply with the provisions of the experimental legal regime (ELR).
In his opinion, the platform's test mode will initially be limited to a narrow circle of people. Then the largest exporters and importers - subsidiaries and granddaughters of blue chips and businesses from their perimeter - will gain access. The specialist doubted that SMEs or individuals will be included in this group.
The expert noted the risk of breach of confidentiality of transactions, which could lead to the transfer of data to sanctions lists and subsequent blocking of assets.
“If information leaks into the public domain that cryptocurrency was purchased on a Russian exchange, then with the help of special technical means it will be easy to track this and mark absolutely all transactions as suspicious,” he said.
Let us recall that on July 30, the State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted the EPR bill in the second and third readings, allowing the use of cryptocurrencies in foreign trade. From September 1, the document gives the Bank of Russia the right to create a platform for the legal conduct of such transactions and exchange trading.
Bloomberg previously reported that Russian companies are trying to solve the problem of cross-border payments using cryptocurrencies.#BTC
