Russian departments and regulators continue to work on strengthening the control of the cryptocurrency sphere in the country. Today it became known that the Ministry of Communications prepared requirements for the release of digital tokens,
according to Kommersant. In particular, the organizers of the ICO will be obliged to use the proceeds from the sale of tokens to enable them to be repurchased from investors at a nominal price. And fulfillment of obligations will be assigned to companies accredited by the Ministry of Communications and Mass Communications.
The draft government decree on accreditation of organizations that provide the possibility of issuing digital tokens has already been published on the official portal. According to the document, a digital token is considered to be a record in a distributed information system, which is created using cryptographic algorithms. The record thus certifies that the owner has the rights to receive the initial cost of the token from the organizer of the primary release of digital tokens.
The ICO accreditation will be issued for a period of five years. The accreditation procedure is voluntary, and the Ministry of Communications will be in control. To obtain accreditation, an organization must meet several conditions: the presence of a share capital of at least 100 million rubles, a license for the development, production and distribution of cryptographic tools. In addition, the organizer of the issue of tokens should open a bank account in a Russian bank to conduct operations with money received as a result of ICO.
In Russia, the release of digital tokens can be performed only for Russian rubles by bank transfer. The ICO organizer is obliged to buy them at a nominal price from any bearer on the basis of the so-called irrevocable public offer. Plus, the project provides for “the obligation of the person issuing digital tokens to use the funds received from purchasers of digital tokens only for purposes related to maintaining the ability to fulfill the obligation to buy digital tokens at a nominal price.” Compliance will be monitored by an accredited organizer of the ICO.
According to market participants, the document does not take into account many aspects of the ICO and the moments associated with the primary placement of tokens. For example, there is no mention of the pre-ICO stage, when investors receive tokens at a discount. Also, many ICOs are held with the obligation on the part of investors not to sell tokens for a certain period of time.
Arseny Shcheltsin, director of the Russian Cryptocurrency Association and Blockchain, believes that the decree is completely divorced from reality. Thus, the document states that funds must be raised in order to be able to give them away, and not to direct to the development of the project itself, which contradicts both the laws of business and the interests of the organizers of the ICO, even the most honest, who have a finished product . It may well be that the authors of the bill created a clause in accordance with the similar provision of the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The American regulator may claim funds from violators of investors' rights.
Other experts, familiarized with the document, argue that its text contains a lot of vague wording, which can “cause collisions”. In this case, the project is not synchronized with other existing bills. In particular, Scheltsin argues that the Ministry of Communications should not regulate management processes in various financial platforms. Moreover, the item on the voluntary accreditation of the organizers of the ICO is unlikely to be voluntary in fact.
“The way our bodies are formulated will be interpreted in such a way that business cannot be conducted. They will interfere with business, which is what I fear. Documents often allow double interpretation, this can interfere with the ICO process, ”Artem Inyutin, managing partner of TMT Investments venture fund, comments on the situation.
One of the declared reasons for which the Ministry of Communications is preparing a bill to regulate the holding of ICO in Russia - the desire to protect market participants. 59% of all ICOs last year either
went bankrupt , or almost went bankrupt, or the organizers disappeared with the money collected. In total, 902 ICOs were held last year. 142 failed to raise funds, 276 failed, but they went bankrupt immediately after the completion of the ICO. Bankrupt companies collected about $ 104 million. In most cases, participants did not receive their funds back.