The Russian Ministry of Finance has estimated that Russian bitcoin miners generate around $4 billion annually from mining cryptocurrencies. In a session named “Mining as a “white swan” of the Russian economy” at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, Ivan Chebeskov, head of the Financial Policy Department of the Ministry of Finance, said that the taxation of this industry could bring in around 20 billion rubles (about 240 million U.S. dollars) to the budget.
Chebeskov noted that the profit of miners is about 100 billion rubles. If the right prerequisites are created for the development of the industry, its multiple growth is possible, and so is the growth of tax contributions. The bill on the legal regulation of cryptocurrency mining was submitted to the State Duma in the fall of 2022, which assumes that in case of receiving a digital currency, the miner would have to inform the authorities, declare the income and pay taxes. The bill was supposed to be agreed before the end of last year, but the decision was postponed due to discussions.
The Central Bank was one of the strongest opponents of the legalization of cryptocurrencies in Russia. Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said in November that the Central Bank “like armor, a wall, stands to death” and does not want cryptocurrency to enter circulation. However, in the spring of 2023, the Central Bank allowed the use of cryptocurrency in external settlements.
“Cryptocurrency should not be used inside the country, and for external payments we assume that this is possible in the form of an experiment,” said the head of the Central Bank, Elvira Nabiullina. Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseev said that as part of the experiment, a special committee would be created in Russia that would issue permits to individual operators to use cryptocurrency in foreign trade settlements.
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