Russian President Vladimir Putin has underscored the need for effective regulation for cryptocurrencies, local media outlet TASS has reported.
Putin noted that the Bank of Russia has been acting conservatively in the area of cryptocurrencies, but said that such an approach is not without reason.
"[I]n broad terms, legislative regulation will be definitely required in future," Putin said. "It is known that the cryptocurrency is not backed by anything. It cannot be a store of value. No material valuables are behind it and it is not secured by anything. It can be a settlement medium to a certain degree and in certain situations. This is done quickly and efficiently.”
"We cannot afford recurrence of the situation with the cryptocurrency, as it happened with deceived equity construction investors. If we regulate and, furthermore, regulate insufficiently effective, then the state will be responsible for the grave situation the people may face," Putin added.
The comments come at a time when the Ministry of Finance is preparing a list of approved cryptocurrency trading platforms in the country. Last month, the ministry had drafted a bill on cryptocurrency regulations, Finance Magnates reported.
The Finance Ministry “supports the legalization of trade in cryptocurrencies on official exchanges,” Alexei Moiseev, Russian Deputy Finance Minister, told reporters adding that the ministry “[does] not want to limit and regulate, but we will set some limits.”
In addition, reports have also surfaced in the past couple of months that suggest Putin has “has commissioned work on establishing a cryptocurrency.” Called ‘CryptoRuble”, the cryptocurrency would be a useful tool to get around international sanctions,” Sergey Glazyev, an economic adviser to Putin, told FT.
