The expert assessed the prospects of the bill on the recognition of cryptocurrencies as property

After the official recognition of cryptocurrencies as property, criminal schemes related to the theft of digital assets on exchanges will be classified under the articles "theft" or "fraud", which, in turn, will reduce the number of crimes in this area, the director of communications of the cryptocurrency exchange told Izvestia on April 16. exmo.me Michael Smirnov.

Currently, the most popular methods of storing cryptocurrencies are "hot" and "cold" wallets. Cold wallets imply that access to digital assets is carried out through a physical device, whereas hot wallets use addresses on the blockchain. To ensure the security and confidentiality of information about digital currency, especially when it is stored on a hot custodial wallet (linked to a crypto exchange), owners often use multi-level protection. For example, they can split the password to access the exchange into parts and not store them in one place.

"One of the ways to save and hide assets from Russians remains the transfer of currency to a non-custodial wallet, which does not depend on other intermediaries like the exchange. In this case, it becomes more difficult for attackers to gain access to asset management," the expert believes.

Online loss: the concept of "digital currency" will be included in the Criminal Code

This is necessary to regulate its arrest and seizure.

According to him, the main difficulty of regulating the new draft law on digital currency is that in order to confiscate an asset, direct access is required, which is available only to the owner (if the asset is stored on a non-custodial wallet) and the exchange. As for the latter, government cooperation with it is also a difficult task, since most crypto exchanges are registered outside of Russia. For the successful implementation of the draft law, an important aspect remains the technical readiness of government agencies, which will ensure the full safety of the currency on the side of the legal authorities during court proceedings.

The market may also focus on tools to protect its users' crypto assets from seizure, namely, the development of services that allow hiding any wallet—related activity. Such tools are mainly used in fraudulent schemes, but they can potentially be expanded to be used by ordinary users to secure their assets.

"The crypto market is quickly adapting to new realities, and the Russian segment is no exception. The new legislation may push crypto holders to develop new and more sophisticated methods to protect cryptocurrencies, and in particular, to conceal them," Smirnov summed up.

Earlier, on April 2, it was reported that one in five Russians (21%) was deceived in the digital space, and 13% of respondents became victims of scams in real life, offline. Half of the respondents (50%) fell for the tricks of intruders both on and off the Internet. At the same time, 16% of the survey participants have never experienced fraud either online or offline. This is stated in the results of a study of the <url> service.