Russia Warns About Using Cryptocurrency ATMs

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The Tatarstan prosecutor’s office warned businesses about the violations that involve the installation of cryptocurrency ATMs. According to the webpage of the procuracy of the Republic of Tatarstan the legal status of cryptocurrency in the Russian Federation is not defined.

Cryptocurrency ATMs not Forbidden Neither Allowed

As CoinStaker covered several times, Russia has been focused in regulating the cryptocurrency world. At the moment, Russia has the intention to create its own cryptocurrency, the CryptoRuble. Some time ago, the Russian government has also decided to open two cryptocurrency agencies in Vladivostok City.

About Bitcoin ATMs, the situation is not clear. “Currently, the legal status of cryptocurrency in the Russian Federation is not defined. The provision by Russian legal entities of services for exchanging “virtual currencies” for rubles and foreign currency, as well as for goods (work, services) is considered as a potential involvement in the implementation of questionable transactions in accordance with the legislation on combating the legislation (laundering) of proceeds from crime, and the financing of terrorism,” reads the statement.

The information was released by this state agency after two bitcoin machines (ATMs) were installed at Kazan. The owner of the ATMs is a 34 years old businessman from the region were the ATMs were installed. The company that has installed the ATMs is registered in Ufa, Republic of Bashkortostan.

While this does not seem illegal, the statement released by the procuracy does not feel comfortable with it. “The prosecutor’s office announced to the businessman an official warning about the inadmissibility of violating the current law.”

Russia Wants to Regulate Cryptocurrencies and ICOs

Russian President, Vladimir Putin, has commented several times about cryptocurrencies. The main intention of Vladimir Putin is to regulate the cryptocurrency market in his territory. In addition to this, the Russian Central Bank has said that they will ban all cryptocurrency exchanges as China did some months ago.

The regulations will not only apply to virtual currencies and exchanges, but to ICOs as well. There will be issued registration requirements for miners; securities laws will apply to Initial Coin Offerings.

“The Government of the Russian Federation, in conjunction with the Bank of Russia, shall ensure that changes are made to the legislation of the Russian Federation providing for… [the] determination of the status of digital technologies used in the financial sphere and their concepts (including such as “technology of distributed registries”, “digital letters of credit”, “digital mortgage”, “crypto-currency”, “token”, “smart contract”) based on the obligation of the ruble as the only legal tender in the Russian Federation.”

In addition to this, Bitcoin miners must be registered in order to be able to develop their activities. Miners will also be regulated by a special system in which they will have to be registered and pay taxes. The intention is to regulate all the activities around the cryptocurrency world, ICOs, Miners, ATMs, Bitcoin and other virtual currencies.