Sergey Mendeleev: The law on restricting the circulation of cryptocurrencies is sabotage and high treason

For example, is USDT stablecoin a cryptocurrency in terms of Russian law? Generally speaking, no: on the one hand, there is a person obliged to pay a set price for tokens, on the other hand, the same person can interfere in the process of currency transfer in the network and block it at the level of a smart contract.

But, of course, no one will go into such nuances, including the authors of the law, who in general (in my estimation) do not see any difference between bitcoin and Tether stablecoin. What to speak of law enforcers in the form of law enforcers who will comb everyone with the same comb.

Let's take the laws on "landing" or personal data - and understand: generally speaking, no foreign cryptocurrency exchange can operate in Russia without direct and immediate use of the Russian information infrastructure. Deputies forgot about these nuances when preparing the text of the bill? Cute.

As a result, we will get a complete ban on crypto circulation with some formal permission to trade under an experimental legal regime from the Central Bank. A regime that no one has ever seen. To all official inquiries, officials answer: the documents - under the "for official use". And in private conversations they admit that they have not even started writing the documents yet.

Why go to such lengths? As far as I understand, the bill is being submitted for the first reading without the mandatory in such cases conclusion of the Central Bank, which was directly pointed out by the legal department of the State Duma. Or is there confidence that after a year and a half of red tape in the remaining ten days Neglinnaya will write and send an opinion? And what will be the quality of such a student's term paper, written the night before the test?

Of course, the law will affect everyone - not only miners, but any sphere of life that has anything to do with crypto: from semi-legal casinos to quite legal foreign economic activity. We have only just built up payment mechanics for our importers and exporters, who are forced to look for ways to conduct their business under the most severe sanctions pressure. And here it is. And everything is presented under the guise of alleged assistance in conducting foreign economic activity.

Use a calculator. In 2024, Russia will have only $2 billion worth of bitcoins (at current prices). This is less than half a percent of the volume of foreign trade. How can you ban payments in USDT with a daily turnover of tens of billions - for the sake of "permission" to conduct foreign trade on bitcoins worth two billion a year?! I am sure that the US State Department, which is actively fighting sanctions against all Russian crypto-projects, has already prepared champagne on the occasion of the adoption of this law. What our enemies have been unable to do for more than three years, our lawmakers will now complete in ten days. I cannot call such actions anything other than sabotage and, I will not be afraid of the word, treason. I'm sorry. We are destroying the entire cryptocurrency industry in our own country with our own hands, to the delight of our enemies. It's unbelievable. What the hell are you doing?!

As for the suddenly accelerated timing of the adoption of the law, I know the reason, but I can't talk about it, sorry. In any case, this is a huge strategic mistake, the consequences of which we will be dealing with for years, and first of all in the legal spheres - mining and foreign economic activity. And no one will stop changing crypto anyway, as no one stopped playing in casinos after they were banned. Simply all business has gone online and has become generally out of reach of the controlling authorities. Absolutely the same thing will happen with exchanges and exchangers, and if now everyone cooperates with law enforcement agencies in one way or another to detect, suppress, and investigate crimes related to high technology, then after the ban, who will investigators write requests to? To grandpa's village? Well, farewell.