The Central Bank of Russia intends to prohibit mutual funds from acquiring encrypted assets or related financial instruments. The proposal is in line with its strong stance on decentralized digital currencies, after regulators urged stock exchanges to avoid trading securities related to cryptocurrencies.

The Central Bank of Russia issues a draft directive banning mutual fund crypto investment

The Central Bank of the Russian Federation (Community rehabilitation) Measures are being taken to prevent co-investment funds from investing funds in digital currencies such as Bitcoin. These restrictions also apply to derivatives whose value depends on fluctuations in their interest rates or the price of securities related to digital assets.

The monetary authorities interpreted this move as a need to protect the funds and rights of investors. This measure involves not only non-qualified investors, but also qualified investors. From 2016, it will be introduced through amendments to the CBR Directive “On the composition and structure of joint-stock investment fund assets and mutual investment fund assets”.

Bank of Russia recently Publish Discuss changes. The window for receiving feedback and suggestions on the draft document will be open until December 27. Regulators introduced new regulations after warning asset managers not to include crypto assets in their mutual funds earlier this year.

July, CBR suggestion The Russian Stock Exchange avoids the listing of cryptocurrency-based instruments, and advises brokers and trustees not to provide unqualified investors with “fake derivatives with such underlying assets.”Later, the authorities stated that they would not provide such investors with access to cryptocurrencies, and Refuse Provide related financial services.

Opinion poll results announced this month showHowever, alternative assets such as cryptocurrencies account for more than half of the country’s non-qualified investors’ portfolio. At the time, 46% of the 1,000 respondents in the survey admitted that they viewed digital currencies as future hedge investments.

In October, media reports quoted Anatoly Aksakov, chairman of the important financial market committee, as revealing that legislators in the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, plan to consider restricting private investors from buying cryptocurrencies. Moscow officials have been discussing this idea.

In October 2020, the Bank of Russia proposed an annual limit of 600,000 rubles (slightly more than 8,000 US dollars) and solicited public opinion on the threshold. The expectation at the time was that the restriction would be included in the Digital Financial Assets Law that took effect in January, but this did not happen.

Do you think the proposal of the Bank of Russia to ban mutual funds from investing in cryptocurrencies will receive sufficient support? Share your expectations in the comments section below.

Lubomir Tasef

Lubomir Tassev is a tech-savvy journalist from Eastern Europe. He likes Hitchens’ famous quote: “Being a writer is my nature, not what I do.” In addition to encryption, blockchain and financial technology, international politics and economics Are the other two sources of inspiration.