Belarus has legalized transactions in crypto-currencies

President Alexander Lukashenko signed a decree on the move on Thursday, his press service said. The decree is designed to attract digital coin entrepreneurs, who are moving businesses to locations more welcoming to crypto-currencies as they face intensifying scrutiny from regulators over digital currency fund-raising, known as initial coin offerings.
“The decree is a breakthrough for Belarus,” Anton Myakishev, the head of Microsoft’s (MSFT.O) Belarus office, told Reuters.
“It gives the industry the possibility to make a leap forward in its development and allows foreign capital the possibility to come to Belarus and work in comfortable conditions.”

The decree legalizes initial coin offerings and transactions in crypto-currencies, including their exchange for traditional currencies on Belarussian exchanges, while all trades will be tax-free for the next five years. It also allows local IT companies to operate in part under English law – a boon to potential foreign investors, who can struggle to navigate the Belarussian legal system.

”We regularly faced legal problems. When a Western company buys a Belarussian company they try to structure the deal outside Belarus,” said Denis Aleinikov, senior partner in a private law firm Aleinikov and Partners in Minsk and the main author of the decree. “Investors don’t want to deal with Belarussian legislation,” he told Reuters.
Viktor Prokopenya, a prominent investor in the Belarussian IT sector, said Reuters the legislation and other measures showed the government fully supported the industry.