Russia:
Russia is moving forward with cryptocurrencies and their “legalization”. According to press, digital currencies in Russia will be categorized as “digital rights”. The new term will serve as differentiation to terms like “digital money” and “digital currency”. The whole change in name will be made mainly for tax purposes, as explained by Anatoly Aksakov, Head of State Duma Financial Market Committee. He explained that cryptocurrencies will not be deemed property rights, but rather a whole new category of property digital rights. Russia has long been in favor with cryptocurrencies, especially considering that several universities introduced cryptocurrency education and the fact that Russia has been thinking of introducing its own digital coin in the near future. While that is no certain, Russia is definitely one of the very “pro-crypto” countries.
China:
China banned cryptocurrency exchanges last year, causing a near meltdown of cryptocurrencies and their market cap at that point. However, the country has been working to develop their own digital currency, a mix between the fiat money and the major features of digital coins. According to CoinDesk, the People’s Bank of China has filed around 40 patents all in one field – the development of their own digital money. While China is not creating a pure cryptocurrency, they are trying to stay competitive as cryptocurrencies become more and more popular despite the recent fall in prices and market cap.
United States:
Recently, ethereum was announced not to be a security as an asset class, as recognized by the SEC. The SEC has declared that bitcoin and ethereum should be classified as commodities rather than securities. The classification of cryptocurrencies has been a hard task for many governments and central banks. While many acknowledge the importance and growing opportunities that blockchain and digital money presents, there is no clear worldwide consensus as how cryptos should be categorized in the near future.