Starting from August 3, new rules for depositing cash to digital wallets such as Yandex. Money, PayPal QIWI, and WebMoney will come into effect in Russia. Their clients will not be able to replenish their accounts anonymously, for example, through payment terminals and the offices of cellular operators. The amendments were made to the law “On the national payment system”, the goal is to combat illegal activities such as the financing of terrorism and drug trafficking.
The amendments that have come into effect will not affect people using crypto exchanges, said Dmitry Kirillov, a lawyer at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner. The law deals specifically with digital money operators. Their activities are regulated by legislation and decisions of the Bank of Russia. International trading platforms dealing with digital currencies are outside the scope of such restrictions and are not subject to new regulations. However, this may influence the preferred method of people who buy cryptocurrency, for instance, through exchanges using ATMs.
Antonina Levashenko, who is a part of the Commission for Legal Support of the Digital Economy at the Brach of the Lawyers Association of Moscow, highlighted that restrictions on depositing cash to anonymous digital wallets are done to tighten standards in the sphere of combating money laundering. In 2019 Russia noted vulnerabilities in the use of digital currencies due to the risks of anonymity, that often leaves holders of such assets exposed to fraud. Therefore, Russian regulators are striving to increase the transparency of the use of electronic systems in acquiring such assets. Currently, these measures do not affect cryptocurrency, but in the future, this is likely to change.
Maria Stankevich, EXMO Exchange Development Director, believes that the adopted amendments to the law play into the hands of exchanges for cryptocurrency trading. Users can fund their accounts on trading platforms through electronic systems that have anonymous ways of depositing funds.
The experts agree that the amendments that have come into force will have almost no impact on the digital money industry in Russia, at least for now. In the future, the legislation may be expanded further to combat activities such as terrorist financing more efficiently.
