Anatoly Aksakov, chairman of the Russian State Duma’s Committee on Financial Markets, said on Wednesday that Russia must pass new laws to protect private investors from potential losses when investing in cryptocurrencies, the local news agency Interfax reported on Wednesday.
To this end, he said, the country’s legislators are reportedly saying new legislation restricting investments in cryptocurrencies by non-accredited investors.
The official spoke at an event organized by the Bank of Russia to protect consumers of financial services.
“Cryptocurrencies are the subject of our increasing attention, and we will strive to provide maximum protection to our citizens who invest in digital assets, because this is a new tool that is very difficult for an unskilled investor,” said Aksakov.
Aksakov said that investing in cryptocurrencies is associated with many risks as well as promising returns as global investors invest billions of dollars in cryptocurrencies. “We definitely need to pass specific legislation to protect the lay investor from destructive investments in cryptocurrencies,” he said.
RELATED: Bank of Russia seeks to block emotional and suspicious cryptoactivity
The latest news is in line with new plans by the Bank of Russia to slow down transactions on cryptocurrency exchanges to protect private investors from “emotional” purchases of cryptocurrencies. Sergei Shvetsov, first deputy head of the Bank of Russia, claimed that this measure would protect Russian investors from losses in the scenario when “the cryptocurrency market collapses to zero.”
Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) have become a popular investment tool in Russia. According to a survey conducted by the Russian Forex Traders Association in August, 77% of Russian investors said that cryptocurrency was the “most promising” investment.
