The State Duma adopted in the first reading a draft law on digital financial assets.
The draft law establishes the concepts of new financial assets created or issued using digital financial technologies. Also, legal conditions are created to attract investments by Russian legal entities and individual entrepreneurs through the release of tokens.
These are tools such as cryptocurrency and token. In addition, a new type of contract, signed in electronic form, is legally fixed – a smart contract, the fulfillment of obligations under which is carried out using digital financial technologies.
According to the document, the cryptocurrency and the token are property. It is directly established that digital financial assets are not a legal means of payment in the territory of the Russian Federation.
Also, such notions as digital recording and digital transaction are legally fixed. In addition, the legal framework for the implementation of new activities aimed at creating a cryptocurrency or receiving a fee in the form of a cryptocurrency (mining) is established, as well as activities to confirm the validity of digital records in the distributed register of digital transactions (validation).
The draft law provides for the possibility of making transactions for the exchange of tokens into rubles or currencies. At the same time, the possibility of exchanging other digital financial assets, as well as the procedure and conditions for executing such transactions, will be determined by the Central Bank in consultation with the government.
To reduce the risks of holders of digital financial assets when making transactions and ensuring compliance with the requirements of the law on combating the laundering of proceeds from crime, all transactions will be carried out through operators of the exchange of digital financial assets, which can only be legal entities, the document says.
The bill also introduces the concept of a digital wallet. A separate item in the bill is an article that establishes the legal basis for conducting in Russia the procedure for issuing tokens known as ITO (Initial Token Offering). According to the draft, the release of tokens is carried out on the basis of a public offer, and the need to disclose additional information by the person issuing the tokens is also fixed. At the same time, the Central Bank will be able to set limits on the amount of acquisition of tokens by persons who are not qualified investors.
