Ethereum Watch

January 22, 2018 11:22 PM

Anatoly Aksakov, the head of the Financial Market Committee in the State Duma, the lower house of Russia’s parliament, has reportedly said that the Russian Federation’s Central Bank may allow the launch of cryptocurrency trading on the Moscow Stock Exchange.

Speaking to state-owned media outlet Tass, he explained:

“We have the St. Petersburg International Commodity Exchange, the Moscow Stock Exchange, the [Russia Trading System], but they actually act as a non-profit partnership. Although they are also ready to participate in this process, and there are specialists in stock exchange operations there. I suppose that, the Central Bank is now considering the Moscow Stock Exchange, perhaps also the St. Petersburg Commodity Exchange for this purpose. But now there is a stronger urge to work with the Moscow Stock Exchange.”

Russian officials have previously suggested that decentralized cryptocurrencies should not be used as a conventional means of payment and that their owners should be subjected to a value-added tax; President Vladimir Putin himself has stated that they “cannot be a store of value.” These stances could conceivably be consistent with a move to treat decentralized digital assets as stocks.

According to the report in Tass, Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseev has said that his agency would be working with the central bank to compile a list of exchanges that could support cryptocurrency trading, adding that other marketplaces might ultimately be allowed to offer the service as well.

Adam Reese is a Los Angeles-based writer interested in technology, domestic and international politics, social issues, infrastructure and the arts. Adam is a full-time staff writer for ETHNews and holds value in Ether and BTC.

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