How does digital assets work in Serbia?

Digital assets are a new asset class and the Law recognizes them," said attorney Ilija Rilaković at the panel "Use of digital assets in ongoing business" within the Eighth Advanced Technologies Forum in Niš.

The way to acquire them is through foreign exchanges or a domestic provider of such services.

- The essence is that you do not use an intermediary, i.e., a bank that will perform the transfer for you. You can easily send and receive currencies and tokens. It is convenient for transactions, and you do not have to wait several days for approval, everything is realized quickly and efficiently - says Ilija.

Cryptocurrency is not the same as money according to our Law, although it is adequate for easy and fast exchange.

- In our country, the position has been taken that cryptocurrency is not money. This is written in our Law, but many are of the opinion that this is being relativized, because it is considered to make doing business more difficult - he said.

Rilaković pointed out what specifically users face in practice:

1. Retail - B2C, which means that a bill cannot be paid directly with cryptocurrency, but there must be an intermediary who takes a percentage for themselves.

- The National Bank of Serbia, however, has not granted licenses for intermediaries - he said

However, 'business2business' is not prohibited, and there is an official explanation of exactly how it will function and how it will be recorded. The NBS must receive reports on all changes.

2. Capital control, rigid regulations on foreign exchange operations and foreign trade;

3. Regulations that do not follow the spirit of the times;

4. Absence of practice and

5.  Modest recognition of technology and regulations by state authorities.

As far as the Law is concerned, there are two bodies that have a say, namely: the National Bank and the SEC (Securities Commission).

- As temporary entities, you must report what assets you have, but there are also registries that monitor the state and they are not public - said Ilija.

As Ilija further stated, the essence of digital assets is that you control who has the ability to block your accounts, and that depends on the digital wallet.

- You can take care of your funds yourself, and in that case, if you lose them, you have no one to turn to. And there is a centralized exchange that can potentially block your funds because you handed over the responsibility of safekeeping to them, which is like a crypto bank - he said.

Regulations on money cannot be applied to digital assets because they are not monetary instruments prescribed by the Law. They are not a means of payment but of exchange and trade.

- This can be viewed more as service-for-service, or service-for-money. However, the Law limits what kind of exchange it will be exactly - the attorney pointed out.