Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Financial Markets, Anatoly Aksakov released an official statement on cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings (ICOs). The statement goes in detail regarding two documents, one of them is labeled “On Digital Financial Assets” and the other one is “On Alternative Methods of Fundraising”, both will become law by 1th of July 2018. This goes well hand in hand with the recent news that the G20 is planning to regulate cryptos in July as well.

The bill “On Digital Financial Assets” was first introduced on 25th of January by the Russian Ministry of Finance, focusing on cryptocurrencies and tokens and their trading. It stated that the mentioned digital assets could only be traded via authorized cryptocurrency exchange operators. Regarding ICOs: the requirement, according the bill, is to introduce Know-your-customer (KYC) process for fundraising. The updated version of the document sees digital assets as property and they are not a legitimate means of payment for now.

Also, the current version establishes KYC regulations not only for customer identify verification for crypto exchanges but similarly to the US it also would require the verification of customer accounts with Anti-Money-Laundering (AML) and Counter Terrorist Financing (CTF) systems as well.

The new bill has also identified a maximum amount of investment regarding ICOs, which is going to be limited by the Central Bank of the Russian Federation.