Bank of Russia Seeks Limit on Amount of Digital Assets Retail Investors Can Buy

The Bank of Russia published several regulatory proposals clarifying how the central bank will be regulating digital assets in the country. Russia has already passed a law about the issuance of digital securities, which includes cryptocurrencies.

Most notable, the Russian central bank wants to limit the amount of digital assets non-qualified investors can buy in a year.

According to the proposal, published by the Bank of Russia on Wednesday, non-qualified investors would be able to buy no more than 600,000 rubles worth of digital assets in one year, or about $7,740. Qualified investors won’t have to abide by this limit. The Bank of Russia expects to get public feedback on the proposal until Oct. 27.

To be considered a qualified investor, one must satisfy one of the following five criteria:

• Have a net worth of no less than 6 million rubles (~$74,400)
• Own securities totaling more than $74,400
• Have experience working in a financial organization over two years
• Regularly trade significant amounts of securities
• Have a degree in economics

This only applies to the digital assets issued by companies registered with the country’s central bank, not cryptocurrencies.

“This document only touches the digital assets that will be issued under the new law on the digital assets,” crypto-savvy Russian lawyer Mikhail Uspensky told CoinDesk. “Such tokens don’t exist yet, so the document is written for the future. The law will only come into force in January [2021], and cryptocurrencies are not mentioned in it at all,” he added.

The Bank of Russia also published a separate proposal on how the digital assets issuers should register to issue tokens legally, a document on how it will be issuing electronic signature keys for such companies and another one saying that digital assets issuers will be subject to the same rules regarding their accounting practices as other financial companies.

Russia’s main financial regulator has ramped up its work regarding digital assets recently: On Tuesday, the Bank of Russia issued a report on the potential launch of its own central bank digital currency (CBDC), the digital ruble. The details of the project and whether it will ever be launched are yet to be decided.

Also read: Digital Ruble Can Help Track Government Spending, Bank of Russia Says