Anatoly Aksakov, a member of Russia’s State Duma and a key spokesman for the country’s cryptocurrency legislation process, claimed that he has never owned any Bitcoin (BTC).
Aksakov said that he doesn’t hold any Bitcoin and likely won't, as the government has prohibited officials from purchasing crypto, local news agency TASS reported on Thursday.
The official went on to say that he was willing to buy some Bitcoin as an investment before the ban came into force last year. However, he thought that the price was too high at the time:
“I wanted to buy only in order to accumulate. But Bitcoin had already surged too much, and I was upset about spending money. If it had cost 100 rubles, I would have bought it.”
In the interview, Aksakov also argued that Bitcoin should not be available to unqualified investors due to its extreme volatility. He also touched upon the development of Russia’s crypto tax regime, noting that crypto tax reports are currently made on a voluntary basis, as a draft bill that would make reporting mandatory has only passed its first reading in parliament.
Aksakov is a major financial official in Russia who serves as chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee on Financial Markets as well as a member of the Bank of Russia’s National Banking Council. He has emerged as a major Bitcoin critic, predicting last year that BTC had no future.
Aksakov’s remarks come shortly after another regulatory initiative suggested to partially lift the country’s ban on crypto payments in late May. The country officially enforced the ban in January as part of its major cryptocurrency law, “On Digital Financial Assets.”