Russia Develops ICO Guidelines

Russia appears to be positioning itself to regulate Initial Coin Offerings, refraining from an outright ban, as the world’s biggest country by territory looks to benefit from the surging popularity of ICOs, Bitcoinist reported. What’s more, Russia is positioning its national currency, the ruble, to play an integral part in the ICO process. Russia’s MinComSvyaz has prepared regulations for ICOs, according to local news source Kommersant, publishing the document (in Russian), which is currently in the public discussion stage. Some of the most notable points in the document are: ICO organizers would be accredited for a period of 5 years; accreditation is proposed to be voluntary and controlled by MinComSvyaz; ICOs must be registered in the Russian Federation; registered capital must be at least 100 million rubles ($1.7 million); must be licensed to develop, produce, and distribute cryptographic commodities; must have Russian bank account for transmitting money raised from ICO; issuing of digital tokens must be carried out in rubles only (cashless settlement). Additionally, ICO organizers would be required to support buy-backs from investors at the nominal price using the money raised from the token sale.