In a bid to battle money laundering done through cryptocurrencies, the Central Bank of Russia has introduced a new set of rules to regulate the crypto market in their country.

These recommended guidelines will allow banks to tag crypto marketings as suspicious.

The legislation clarifies how banks can apply the broader AML framework to combat money laundering done through crypto.

As reported by local news, this new rule as proposed by the Central Bank of Russia considers both the buying and selling of cryptocurrencies as suspicious.

According to Ivan Zimin, the director of the Central Bank’s financial technology department, these rules are crucial for the preface and growth of crypto in the developing digital assets market.

He added that based on the results of the piloting, they suggested to include it in the draft federal law on digital financial assets.

The bank issued an update to directive 375-P, which lists all signs of suspicious activity that may be associated with money laundering.

This is the first update since 2012 when the original laws were launched.

This manual was developed in collaboration with the Federal Service for Financial Monitoring (RosfinMonitoring).

This move comes as Russian lawmakers keep making amendments to the digital financial asset law which was proposed in early 2018.

Obviously, the regulator’s decision as regards crypto has taken a turn for the worse recently, as nationwide bans on their use of payment are being considered.

Central Bank of Russia proposed guidelines condemned

The crypto community in Russia has, however, criticized these intended guidelines by the Central Bank.

According to Don Guo, CEO of Broctagon, the regulation would build more anxiety in the digital asset space.

To him, Russia just took two steps backward as regards cryptocurrency.

He added that no matter the regulations or laws put in place, digital currencies will continue to thrive and will continue to be embraced as rejecting crypto comes with an opportunity cost.