Updates in the HTP Crypto Regulation – What's New?
Following the meeting of the Supervisory Board of the Hi-Tech Park on January 31, 2025, a number of changes were made to the acts of the HTP Supervisory Board governing the rules for doing crypto business (published on February 17, 2025).
The changes affected both the general requirements for all applicants planning to carry out crypto activities, and the existing ICO organizers and crypto brokers, including:
- adjustment of certain requirements for personnel;
- introduction of a mechanism for preliminary approval of changes in the corporate structure of HTP crypto residents;
- clarification of the requirements for the procedure for the formation of the authorized capital;
- consolidation of requirements for internal control rules in the field of AML/CFT (previously, there was a separate act for crypto brokers and a separate act for other types of crypto business);
- changing the approach to building an AML/CFT internal control system for HTP crypto residents;
- formation of a partially individualized list of criteria for suspicious financial transactions for the crypto sphere;
- integration of norms providing for the possibility of HTP crypto residents to engage third-party identification agents;
Gleb Yakushev, Head of Crypto & Blockchain at REVERA Law Firm, has prepared a detailed overview of the changes:
| 1. Requirements for the staff of HTP crypto residents | |
| 1.1. Head of a Crypto Broker | |
| Earlier: At the time of applying for registration as an HTP resident and for 6 months afterwards, the director may not have a qualification certificate of a securities market specialist of the first category, provided that the applicant company has a deputy director who has this certificate (Parts 1 and 2 of Clauses 4-4 of the Requirements for Crypto Applicants). |
Right away:
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| 1.2. AML/CFT Officer | |
| Earlier: At the time of applying for registration as a HTP resident, it is required to have a higher economic or higher legal education and at least 3 years of experience in an economic or legal specialty. In addition, there are separate requirements for reputation. |
Right away: In addition to the requirements in terms of education, work experience, reputational requirements, the AML/CFT person is required to undergo a preliminary interview conducted by the Secretariat of the HTP Supervisory Board, based on the results of which he or she will receive a positive conclusion. |
| 2. Requirements for the corporate structure (including beneficiaries, participants/owners) of HTP crypto residents | |
| Earlier: Along with other documents required for registration as an HTP resident, the company is obliged to submit to the Secretariat of the HTP Supervisory Board a list of its beneficial owners signed by the head (clause 10 of the Requirements for Crypto Applicants). |
Right away: In addition to beneficial owners, which include individuals who own 10% of shares (shares) or more, or directly/indirectly control the actions of the organization, the company is also obliged to provide a list of all property owners (founders, participants). That is, if earlier information about the founders (participants) owning less than 10% of the shares (shares) could not be provided in certain cases, since they could not fall under the definition of "beneficial owner", now this is a mandatory requirement. |
| Earlier: There was no mechanism for preliminary approval of the planned changes in the corporate structure with the Secretariat of the HTP Supervisory Board. |
Right away: In case of a planned change in the composition of property owners (founders, participants), beneficial owners of the applicant after his registration as a HTP resident, he is obliged to submit to the Secretariat of the HTP Supervisory Board a list of the alleged property owners (founders, participants) of the beneficial owners for the purpose of consideration by the HTP Supervisory Board of the issue of the presence or absence of circumstances indicating their inconsistency the requirements provided for by the Requirements for Crypto Applicants, and the approval of planned changes in the corporate (organizational) structure of such an applicant (Part 2 of Clause 10 of the Requirements for Crypto Applicants). |
| Earlier: There was no such requirement for the reputation of beneficial owners. |
Right away: There is no information from the authorized state bodies about the presence of reputational and other risks for the beneficial owner (paragraph 7 of part 1 of clause 11 of the Requirements for crypto applicants). |
| Earlier: The requirements for the provision of relevant supporting documents (references, certificates, etc.) and representations were provided only for beneficial owners, as well as organizations owning at least 10% of the shares (shares) of the applicant company. |
Right away: An organization or an individual who is the owner of the applicant's property or the founders (participants) of the applicant must comply with the requirements for the absence of debts on payments to the budget, criminal record, bankruptcy, financing of terrorism/extremism, and is not under the sanctions of the UN Security Council and does not have reputational and other risks according to information from authorized state bodies (clause 11 of the Requirements for crypto applicants). |
| Earlier: There were no requirements for the funds used by the owners of the property (participants, shareholders) of the company to form the "mandatory monetary part" of the authorized capital of the HTP crypto-resident. |
Right away: When forming (increasing) the authorized capital, the following criteria should be taken into account (parts 3-5 of clause 15-2 of the Requirements for crypto applicants):
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| 3. Requirements for the activities of crypto brokers | |
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Earlier: |
Right away: That is, now crypto brokers are required to store tokens by the client only within the framework of virtual wallets created in the information systems of HTP resident crypto exchanges. |
| 4. Requirements for the activities of the ICO organizer | |
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Earlier: |
Right away: Accordingly, it is not allowed to order the placement of tokens from the ICO organizer without any specific project/activity (roughly speaking, aimlessly). |
| Earlier: This essential condition was not provided for in the ICO agreement. |
Right away: The list of essential conditions that must be contained in the ICO agreement has been supplemented with a condition on the customer's obligation not to use the funds raised in exchange for the placed tokens for purposes prohibited by law (Part 3 of Clause 9 of the Requirements for the ICO Organizer). |
| 5. Requirements for the Rules of Internal Control of HTP Crypto Residents | |
| Earlier: Basically, the AML/CFT internal control system of HTP crypto residents (Clause 7 of the Internal Control Requirements) was based on classical methods of identification, monitoring and control of financial transactions, in most cases directly affecting the clients of the HTP crypto residents and (or) participants in the financial transaction. |
Right away: In addition, there is now a direct ban on the interaction of HTP crypto residents with non-resident banks, whose accounts are used by banks that do not have permanent management bodies in the territories of the states in which they are registered and are not members of a banking group (bank holding). |
| Earlier: This option was not provided |
Right away: A crypto broker has the right to request a crypto-exchange that is a resident of the HTP in order to assist in verifying the source of origin of the client's tokens (Part 4 of Clause 7 of the Internal Control Requirements). |
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Earlier: |
Right away: If an HTP resident has entrusted the identification of its client to an identification agent, such HTP resident shall determine in the internal control rules the procedure for interaction with identification agents (Parts 8-10 of Clause 32 of the Internal Control Requirements). |
| Earlier: The acts of the HTP Supervisory Board provided for the obligation of the HTP resident to independently maintain the customer base without any option to delegate this business process to third parties. |
Right away: When entrusting identification to the identification agent, the identification agent is allowed to maintain an electronic database of questionnaires of HTP resident's clients. At the same time, the identification agent provides the HTP resident with prompt access to the electronic database of customer questionnaires of the HTP resident (Part 4 of Clause 36 of the Internal Control Requirements). |
| Earlier: When making or executing a transaction for the purchase and sale of tokens in the amount of 5000 basic units and more, a web-ID (video call with the client) was a mandatory way to verify the client. |
Right away: When making or executing a transaction for the purchase and sale of tokens in the amount of 5000 basic units or more for the first time, a web-ID (video call with the client) was a mandatory way to verify the client. For further transactions for such amounts, the Liveness check method (software that allows you to determine the face of a living person by several parameters) can be used (paragraph 2 of part 1 of clause 52 of the Requirements for Internal Control Rules). |
| Earlier: The main criteria for suspicious financial transactions were applied by analogy with the AML/CFT Law. |
Right away: A new individualized list of criteria for suspicious financial transactions has been developed, taking into account the specifics of the cryptosphere (see clause 64 of the Requirements for the Internal Control Rules). |
Author: Gleb Yakushev.
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