Russia’s First Crypto Law With Two Unequivocal Votes

Russia’s State Duma, the lower house of its legislative body, takes its final two votes on the country’s first cryptocurrency law book on Tuesday.

The bill – called “On Digital Currency and Digital Rights“-still need to be approved by the Senate and the signature of the President of Russia Vladimir Putin later, the process Anatoly Aksakov, chairman of the State Duma Committee on Financial Markets, expects to take another two weeks. The law will enter into force on September 1.

The original target was July 1, but the delay was caused by a compromise between the government agencies, according to Russian reports. Kommersant.

What the bill does

The law establishes a licensing system – a government-issued system – for crypto exchanges, brokers, and custodians (companies that store crypto on your behalf, the way a bank stores money). The Bank of Russia is the issuing authority and can ban any cryptocurrency that it deems to be a threat to financial stability.

Major financial institutions are not waiting: VTB and T-Bank have already announced plans to build crypto depositories.

Not all funds qualify. To be legally traded in Russia, a cryptocurrency needs a market capitalization (the value of all traded currencies) above 5 trillion rubles – about $65 billion – and at least five years of proven trading history in official foreign markets.

This narrows the field down to two: Bitcoin and Ethereum. Alexandra Fedotova, a lawyer at White Stone who follows the law, told Russia Parliamentskaya Gazeta that the Bank of Russia will probably release a list of the top five or 10 most traded cryptocurrencies on a large scale.

“This includes BTC and ETH,” he said. “Maybe SOL or TON can be added, because of their popularity in Russia. The rest is for qualified investors.”

Regular investors—people without professional qualifications—face an annual investment of 300,000 rubles (about $3,800) through one licensed intermediary. Professional traders do not face such limitations—nor can they buy crypto-currencies (cryptocurrencies designed to hide transaction data and wallet addresses). Monero (XMR), Zcash (ZEC), and Dash are all out.

“CBR specifically says: you can’t buy money that hides the recipient,” said Fedotova. “If you cannot graph the transaction and see where the money came from, such assets will not pass the AML verification” -AML (anti-money laundering) being financial checks every authorized platform must run on transactions under the new system.

“Buy crypto” and “use crypto” are not the same thing

If you’re a Russian degen, the new rules probably don’t give you much to cheer about: You still can’t buy anything with crypto inside Russia.

The law allows cryptocurrency for international transactions—Russian companies that pay foreign partners in Bitcoin to conduct transactions outside of Western banks. The ruble remains the official currency of Russia at home.

Kaplan Panesh, deputy chairman of the Budget and Tax Committee of the State Duma, explained when the bill was passed. first reading in Aprilthat the legislators prepared the bill and protect the Russian ruble in mind: “This helps Russian companies use cryptocurrency to pay foreign counterparties, circumventing restrictions.”

Russia has been under Western sanctions since 2014, with stronger sanctions following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The The EU moved in February banning all crypto transactions with Russian entities. Moscow continued to make laws.

Putin signed the Russian law on crypto mining in August 2024, which made Russia the second largest producer of Bitcoin in the world after the United States according to Hashrate Index, 2026. New trade rules and enforcement on top of them—completing the regulatory picture Moscow has been building since the first sanctions were imposed.

Unlicensed platforms face a total ban starting July 1, 2027.