Russia Will Legalize Use of Anonymous Wallets


State Duma deputies are considering a new bill that will allow individuals to use anonymous digital wallets. The new bill, however, does not apply to cryptocurrencies

December 16, 2020 | AtoZ Markets – Anatoly Aksakov, chairman of the Duma committee on the financial market, together with a group of deputies from different factions, submitted a new bill for consideration, which will actually legalize the use of anonymous wallets to transfer funds between individuals.

Russia may allow anonymous digital wallets for individuals only

The new bill should eliminate the contradictions between the articles of the law "On the national payment system". If the proposed document is adopted by the State Duma, Russians will be able to freely transfer money from the “non-personalized electronic means of payment” to the accounts of other individuals and legal entities.

However, the parliamentarians note that this law will only apply to electronic payment services such as Yandex.Money, QIWI-Wallet, WebMoney and PayPal, and others similar. This initiative does not apply to cryptocurrency, since it is not recognized as a means of payment, RBC reports.

As a reminder, in August of this year, the Russian government decided to ban all cash and crypto deposits into anonymous e-wallets, as well as use them to transfer funds. This decision stumped more than 10 million people who regularly used e-wallets for digital payments.

The new bill does not apply to cryptocurrencies

The new bill will not in any way affect the use of cryptocurrencies in Russia, experts say. Bitcoin and other crypto coins are still not recognized as a means of payment, therefore the use of crypto wallets is not regulated by law in any way. Nevertheless, Russia entered the top 15 countries in terms of the number of cryptocurrency holders.

Most often, Russians store their crypto coins on exchange wallets or cold wallets, which protect the holder's funds from remote hacker attacks.

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