How the new law will affect the Russian cryptocurrency exchange market
A law has come into force in Russia that limits the maximum amount of transfers between individuals (droppers) included in the Bank of Russia’s database of fraudulent transactions to 100 thousand rubles per month.
If a person gets on this list, banks must introduce a transfer limit for him. When such a client wants to make a transfer of more than 100 thousand rubles, he will need to go to a bank branch with an identity document. The card and online banking may also be suspended.
Experts told RBC-Crypto how the new law will affect Russians’ cryptocurrency transactions and how events may develop further.
“Of two evils choose the less”
The Central Bank's database “On cases and attempts to transfer funds without the voluntary consent of the client” is updated regularly, and this has already affected the entire so-called Russian crypto exchange, said Andrey Tugarin, founder of the legal company GMT Legal.
He explained that data gets into this database from both banks and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The consequence of getting into the Central Bank database is blocking the use of payment cards and online banking until the details are withdrawn from the database, says the lawyer. At the same time, he noted that if the details only get from the bank, then there is a possibility of partial blocking, but in practice these are rare cases. If from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the blocking is always complete, says Tugarin.
The expert recalled that in Russia there is no regulation of cryptocurrency exchange and their circulation in general. In connection with this, according to the lawyer, the p2p format, especially in the context of financial restrictions, has become the only way to buy and sell cryptocurrency for a user with a Russian card.
Peer-to-peer (p2p) trading is direct trading between users without the participation of an exchange as an intermediary. Avoid becoming a participant in cryptocurrency laundering. Experts on the risks of p2p exchange
It is no secret that droppers (otherwise known as drops) are involved in the process of buying and selling cryptocurrency via p2p, and such services are also used by scammers to implement their schemes, falling into which is called “falling into a triangle”.
The “triangle” scheme on p2p platforms: the fraudster simultaneously opens a deal with the cryptocurrency seller and with the buyer who is ready to transfer rubles. He gives the seller's details to the buyer, the latter sends the money, and the seller, seeing the receipt, transfers the cryptocurrency to the fraudster's wallet. A similar scheme is used when selling goods: the victim thinks that he is paying for the purchase, and the money is received by a random participant in the p2p transaction.
According to established practice, it is known that the details that have entered the Bank of Russia database belong not only to droplets or scammers, but also to legitimate participants in p2p transfers, the lawyer added.
“Therefore, this limit of 100 thousand rubles can be compared to the saying “Of two evils, choose the lesser.” According to the regulator's logic, this should make it difficult for a fraudster to draw conclusions, but for a legitimate participant, at least some opportunity remains to use their cards and online banking,” said Tugarin.
“Until the characteristic creak”
In fact, the course towards extrajudicial restrictions for Russian citizens has been taken since the amendments to Federal Law No. 161, which came into force in July 2024, says lawyer and founder of the Cartesius legal agency Ignat Likhunov. According to him, “the market swallowed it”, understanding a certain need and not realizing the possibility of ending up in a similar situation “on the basis of a denunciation, without trial or investigation.”
On July 25, 2024, amendments to Federal Law No. 161 came into force in Russia, according to which banks must return funds stolen by fraudsters to clients in a number of cases, including if a credit institution allowed a transfer to a fraudulent account that is in the Central Bank's special database “On cases and attempts to transfer funds without the client's consent.” Banks froze 30 thousand accounts on the first day of the new law's operation
“Since the ‘experiment’ has been considered a success (after all, not a single opinion leader has voiced any demands to check its constitutionality for over a year), it is quite logical that the screws will continue to be tightened until they creak,” Likhunov believes.
If we talk about the consequences for cryptocurrency exchangers, for p2p services on exchanges, then everything will become more complicated and more expensive, the lawyer believes. In his opinion, the services will not disappear, but globally this is a “movement towards killing the market,” Likhunov concluded.
Источник: cryptocurrency.tech
