Russian Regulators Consider Establishing a ‘Crypto-Detective Agency’

At a recent State Duma Financial Market Committee meeting, an initiative to create a “crypto-detective agency” in Russia was proposed. This specialized agency will primarily collect all information on Russian companies planning to launch an initial coin offering (ICO) as well as create a registry of them.

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Proposal for Crypto-Detective Agency

At the State Duma Financial Market Committee meeting of the expert council on the legislative support of financial technologies last week, the issue of cryptocurrency regulation in Russia was discussed. Representatives from the regulators and major domestic banks attended, reported Izvestia Russian Daily.

The Internet Development Institute (IRI) is an organization whose goal is to develop and operate the industry of modern technologies in Russia. IRI Foundation president Alexei Fyodorov proposed an initiative at the meeting “to create a specialized crypto-detective agency,” the news outlet detailed and reported him explaining:

To protect investors in cryptocurrencies in Russia, it is planned to create a specialized crypto-detective agency. It will collect information on Russian companies intending to launch an ICO. Information will be stored in a special register.

This registry will contain all of the information about these companies that can be found, he described.

“Our agency will be able to extract information about their beneficiaries and their real state of affairs. Is this a startup or an attempt to solve the company’s current problems with the help of the ICO,” he asked, before detailing the need for this agency. “Our task is to protect investors. When a company that has attracted funds from a large number of people fails, its investors will seek protection from the state.”

Ineffective Method

Russia’s internet ombudsman, Dmitry Marinichev, acknowledged the need to collect such data.

In August, news.Bitcoin.com reported about him building a mining infrastructure in Russia to challenge China’s bitcoin mining supremacy. His company, Russian Miner Coin (RMC), recently held an ICO which raised 1,205 BTC, 4,022 ETH, and $37 million, according to the company’s website. The RMC tokens “have rights to 18 percent of the revenue earned with the company’s mining equipment, according to a presentation posted on its website,” Forbes described.

Regarding a registry of companies planning an ICO, Marinichev said “to force a company to register on the register is pointless,” Izvestia wrote and quoted him saying:

Mechanisms for controlling ICOs are needed…But the registers are ineffective.

Eugene Gordeev, Managing Partner at Russian Ventures, believes that “any initiative to register companies is not needed by the market,” the publication wrote.

“It’s like trying to create an agency that evaluates startups at the seed stage when the project has only an idea and a team,” he said. “At this stage, the project has a lot of data that cannot be analyzed. But investors, in case of success, will receive a thousand times more than they invested.”

What do you think of this “crypto-detective agency”? Let us know in the comments section below.

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