Medvedev: Crypto Regulations "No Longer a Priority" for Russia

With regulatory uncertainty making life difficult for firms to do business in cryptocurrency, many in the industry have been calling for governments to put laws in place that would govern the nascent market for digital assets.

But those people are unlikely to be doing business in Russia - at least according to the law - any time soon.

On Thursday, the Russian prime minister Dmitry Medvedev said that his government is not thinking of regulating the cryptocurrency markets.

Medvedev cited a lack of interest, as illustrated by a downturn in the cryptocurrency markets when justifying the Russian government's lax view of crypto laws.

Formulating digital asset regulations "is no longer a priority for the state," said Medvedev at a legal conference in St Petersburg on Thursday.

"Not so relevant"

“Nowadays, the popularity of cryptocurrency has decreased, and regulatory issues may not be so relevant,” the Russian prime minister added.

Speaking at the same conference in 2018, the former Russian president had said that regulators in the world's largest nation needed to introduce some basic laws to govern the cryptocurrency markets.

But, since then, the market has tanked. And, although we are seeing signs that things may be improving, we are certainly not at the heady heights reached in the first quarter of 2018.

Still, having said that crypto is not a priority for Russian lawmakers, Medvedev did not say that authorities are completely uninterested in the asset class.

The Russian prime minister noted that trading in the digital asset markets could increase again. And, by his own logic, that would mean it would be brought to the attention of regulators once again.