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.

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

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.

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