In the midst of a wave of monetary losses, the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) is exploring methods to incorporate blockchain technology and crypto assets into its domestic financial system.
The CBR issued a public discussion report named “Digital Assets in Russian Federation” in a Telegram post on November 7th.
The report examines whether the sanctioned state might allow foreign digital asset issuers, especially those from “friendly countries,” access to its local marketplace.
Additionally, the report includes regulation of digital assets, protection of retail investor, digital property rights pertaining to smart contracts and tokenisation, and reformed accounting and taxation proposals.
The CBR announced that it firmly supports the “further development of digital technologies”, so long as they don’t pose “uncontrollable” financial or cybersecurity risks to customers.
The same regulatory guidelines that apply to the issuance and circulation of conventional financial products should also apply to digital assets, according to CBR, notwithstanding the premise that blockchain technology is still in its early stages.
The CBR stated that short-term regulation should emphasize on preserving investor rights, strengthening the requirements for putting digital assets into circulation, and making sure the issuer is accredited and the issuer provides all necessary information to investors.
Although the legal foundation for digital assets has been established, stronger regulation is necessary for its future development, according to the Central Bank’s post on Telegram, which was initially published in Russian.
The central bank admitted that there was already a legal framework in place for regulating smart contracts, but it suggests that prior to being used, Russian-made smart contracts must be subjected to an independent auditing.
CBR was optimistic regarding the possibilities of tokenized off-chain assets. To secure a “legal connection” between the token holder and the token itself, the bank stated that laws would need to be enacted.
The news comes as the Russian Ministry of Finance just authorized Russian citizens to utilize cryptocurrencies as a means of cross-border payment on September 22.
The CBR said in August 2022 that it intended to provide the digital ruble to all Russian-headquartered banks in 2024.
