Russian president Vladimir Putin has signed an order directing public officials to report cryptocurrency holdings, CoinDesk reports.
The order signed Thursday (Dec. 10) requires both civil servants and people who will soon take on a government position to disclose what crypto assets they hold, along with the quantity and where they purchased them.
The first reports must be provided from Jan. 1 to June 30, 2021, and must include all digital assets, including cryptocurrencies, digital securities and utility tokens, and also include such assets owned by spouses or children of those reporting, CoinDesk writes.
And, in the future, people seeking government roles will have to disclose crypto assets while applying.
Russian law recognizes cryptocurrency as a type of property as of a law signed by Putin over the summer, which will go into effect in January. And the Ministry of Finance there proposed a package of bills detailing how crypto should be reported for tax purposes, outlining that individuals have to report holdings if they exceed 600,000 Russian rubles, or $7,800.
Three top Chinese companies have now joined the fray of the country’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) trials, CoinDesk reports.
Didi, Meituan and Bilibili are the companies now joining the trial, in which successful lottery winners in the city of Suzhou will be able to use digital yuan winnings for their services. Didi runs a taxi service, Meituan a bike-sharing platform and Bilibili a video-sharing site, CoinDesk writes.
An eCommerce firm, JD.com, is also taking place in the new Suzhou test, CoinDesk reports, and will let winners spend their digital yuan in its online mall.
There are reportedly around 10,000 people competing for 200 digital yuan each in this current lottery, CoinDesk writes.
China has been working toward putting out a CBDC, with the People's Bank of China working on gauging user experience through partnership with banks and businesses. There was a previous lottery done in Shenzhen in October, which was more focused on brick-and-mortar stores.
