Tax Secretary urges Russian crypto trading infrastructure

Russia needs to legalize the exchange of domestic cryptocurrency, suggests the head of the approved country’s tax authorities.

Russia’s recently regulated crypto mining industry now sells most of the coins minted overseas, which is hindering its development, tax enforcement agencies say. His call to allow crypto sales arises amid continuing debate in Moscow about the launch of a Russian trading platform for digital assets.

Tax Secretary urges Russian crypto trading infrastructure

Russia needs to build its own infrastructure to promote the sale of cryptocurrency within the country. This is the head of Daniil Egorov, head of Federal Tax Services (FNS), in an interview cited by the Russian Business and Crypto Media.

Speaking to the Russian 24 TV channel at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), Egorov argued that it was logical to provide crypto miners with the opportunity to legally sell digital coins locally since cryptocurrency mining was legal.

Russian miners are now forced to sell cryptocurrencies “overseas, in a virtual world.” The freedom to use this option in the Russian Federation is extremely important in terms of their development, executives argued:

“Of course, there must be some kind of infrastructure in Russian territory, so if you legally mine it, you can legally sell it.”

Egorov went on to point out that if the Russian states already allow them to mine, it would sound strange to tell mining companies that they could not do anything about what they mined. “You have to be consistent, that’s how it looks to me,” he said.

He details that around 1,000 companies and individual entrepreneurs, as well as 2,000 civilians are already involved in mining. Earlier this year, FNS said as of April 1, 722 entries were offering hosting services in a miner’s registry, including 116 “mining infrastructure operators.”

The head of the authorities believes the number will increase. However, he acknowledged that pulling the entire industry out of the shadow economy is not easy, and reminded that miners who consume less than 6,000 kWh of electricity per month do not need to register with FNS.

More than two-thirds of Russian crypto miners have yet to apply for registration with tax collection agencies, Deputy Finance Minister Ivan Trebeskov announced this week. So far, only 30% of all participants in the sector have registered with federal tax services, he told Tass about the bystanders of the economic forum in Russia’s second largest city.

Financial regulators consider starting a crypto exchange in Russia

Speaking separately to the RBC, Chebeskov revealed that the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Russia were initially discussing the legalization of cryptocurrency trading platforms within Russia’s Experimental Legal Scheme (ELR) for cryptocurrency businesses.

The ELR was proposed as part of a law adopted last year to promote the use of cryptocurrency in foreign trade, as Western sanctions on Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine severely restrict Russian companies’ access to the global financial system.

Minfin officials pointed out that while Russian investors can already purchase crypto derivatives, Russia does not have infrastructure to support cryptocurrency trading. He also said at this point that the authorities are considering using existing exchanges for that purpose.

Chebeskov also emphasized that financial regulators share the view that cryptocurrency transactions should only be made available to “highly qualified” investors.

“These must be investors with serious knowledge, understanding of these products and serious capital so that they can take such risks.”

At the same time, he admits that ordinary Russians use cryptocurrency on a fairly large scale, and the current ban has negative effects, highlighting the main issue of what to do with crypto exchanges outside the ELR.