Russia to legalize ICOs

Russia is currently working on legalizing Initial Coin Offerings (ICO's) according to Vedmomosti (one of Russia's largest newspapers.

Elina Sidorenko explains why they feel the need to regulate them:

The State Duma should undertake the development of legal mechanisms that would allow the verification of such contracts. They should also be designed to identify users and protect the rights of the holders of tokens to fulfill the obligations of issuing companies.

They believe that this will be a huge takeoff in cryptocurrency for the Russian economy combined with the bill to legalize Bitcoin and follow Japan's lead. About this bill she added:

The bill will be a framework. Therein, we define the nature of cryptocurrencies and their status, as well as basic principles for the cryptomarket operation. Other provisions will be mostly referential. We don’t try to create an enormous and viscous law that defines all parameters of a new market right away. Creating such a law would just hinder the market.

Cryptocurrencies have been a huge topic of discussion in Russia and all over the world this year, in June President Vladimir Putin even met with Ethereum Creator Vitalik Buterin talking about the opportunities of using its technology.

Image source: Bitcoin.com - News