What can change the law on the regulation of cryptocurrencies? Vasily Kudrin, Partner, Investment Director at Lybrion, the international group, helped to sort out the question.

  • Will the way of regulation of the digital assets market chosen by the authorities be able to lead to the entire legalization of cryptocurrencies?

    • – Over the past two months so many events have taken place in the crypto industry of Russia that the matter of state legalization is not very interesting and waited for. In the medium term, cryptocurrencies may become the most popular assets for settlements, for many economic sectors, including IT. At the same time, the fiat risks becoming an alternative form of money.

  • The authorities have launched licensing operators to work with digital assets. How, in your opinion, will the process of obtaining licenses by market participants be organized?

    • – I assume that the process will be organized in the same way as for other areas of licensing in the financial sector. At the same time, it is necessary to implement instant licensing with the most favorable criteria for access, including the possibility of integrating decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). For the most useful effect, the process should resemble the authorization of the first partakers in the starting blockchain ecosystems.

    The state, unfortunately, dragged out the discussion on the development of the crypto-assets sphere for 3-5 extra years, so it missed a lot of opportunities. Any delay is no longer interesting to anyone. Russian participants in the crypto segment, even those who are physically located in Russia, have hundreds of options for growth.

  • Will the direction of regulation of the crypto industry chosen by the authorities support the crypto community participants?

    • – The chosen direction and work will not bring tangible positive moments and will not fix former issues. However, the design of a legal framework will help solve new problems associated with the pressure of other states, large economic agents and dependent centralized services. At the same time, I am sure that Russian crypto community will cope with this without the state’s assistance.

    The state itself needs help and professional advice, as well as active assistance from the most high-level experts and organizations in the crypto industry. But I do not rule out that the dialogue on such support may also be difficult due to the lack of interest on the part of experts. Also, the situation can be aggravated by the gap in business and humanitarian values between statesmen and crypto enthusiasts.

    Government agencies and regulators need to significantly accelerate in adopting the most favorable norms in this mega-segment of the economy. Also, regulators need to quickly implement tools for integrating traditional systems in modern digital, rather than paper, formats. This includes:

    • digital ruble;
    • remote registration in all services;
    • instant licensing;
    • support of services for tethering crypto to the MIR fiat payment system;
    • organization of mining for reserves to back the digital ruble, etc.

    In the current times, these matters require activation within days, not months. Otherwise, the country will miss valuable opportunities, leading to losses and weakening state institutions.

  • Can the legislation process for cryptocurrencies provoke the transition of many participants in the crypto industry to the shadow market segment?

    • – Many participators of the crypto community already act “in the shadows”. I think that if restrictive and tough measures are embedded, it is the state systems, and not the representatives of the crypto industry, who will face problems. Investors may only fear short-term volatility, which is unlikely to lead to a depression in the international crypto market.

    Now state legal systems are mainly considered (by them), rather, merely as one of the secondary elements of the rapidly developing financial and economic paradigm.

    Source: BeInCrypto (rus)