MOSCOW, February 12. /TASS/. The Bank of Russia and the government expect the law on cryptocurrency regulation to be adopted during the spring session of the State Duma (lower house of the parliament), First Deputy Governor of the Bank of Russia Vladimir Chistyukhin said.

"The government and I would very much like to see the law passed during the spring session. I hope this is a possible consensus decision, and it will provide market participants with a transition period to obtain necessary licenses and develop required internal documents to begin operations, as I already said, legalize this market segment," he said at the Alfa Talk conference.

Earlier, the Bank of Russia devised a concept of cryptocurrency regulation in the Russian market, which suggests that cryptoassets will be accessible to both qualified and non-qualified investors, but the rules for them will differ. That said, the regulator still considers cryptocurrencies a high-risk instrument. According to the concept, digital currencies and stablecoins are recognized as currency assets and can be bought and sold, but cannot be used for domestic payments. According to the regulator, non-qualified investors will be able to purchase the most liquid cryptocurrencies, for which criteria will be established in legislation, but only after passing testing and within a limit.