Russian Duma gives green light to global crypto payments

With a new law, the Russian government wants to improve international payment flows, which had been stalled by Western sanctions.

The Russian House of Commons has approved a law that would allow crypto mining legalizes in the country. This is evident from reports from the Russian news agency TASS. According to Reuters approval of the law would also allow international payments with cryptocurrencies.

After final approval by the Federation, the law should take effect Sept. 1. Then "qualified investors" will be allowed to trade cryptocurrencies on the relevant exchanges. In addition, crypto mining will be strictly regulated. Miners and mining pools must register to operate. Individual miners will be allowed to operate only if they do not exceed energy consumption limits set by the state. They will then not have to register.

Until now, crypto-miners in Russia operated in a gray zone. Without official licenses, there were no arrangements for operation or taxation. Crypto payments were also prohibited. According to Reuters, domestic payments are likely to remain prohibited. Only trading is allowed for registered participants.

The legalization of crypto is primarily intended to boost payment processing in Russia's international trade. This was significantly restricted by Western sanctions following the invasion of Ukraine. Also Venezuela is considering therefore using crypto currencies such as USDT (Tether) to circumvent sanctions and promote its own oil trade.