Crypto regulation in Russia officially came into effect on September 1, 2026, but this does not mean the immediate launch of a full-fledged market. According to Kirill Pistsov, head of product development at FG ‘Finam,’ the law only set legal boundaries, while exchanges, digital depositories, settlement services, and financial companies still need to fill them with real infrastructure.
- New rules for cryptocurrency in Russia came into force on September 1, 2026.
- The transition period for market participants will last until July 1, 2027.
- A capital threshold of 50 million rubles has been set for digital depositories.
For the average user, the main effect of the new rules is not that cryptocurrency will immediately appear in every app, but that transactions will gradually move into a more understandable and controlled framework.
In the coming months, according to the expert, we will see not so much the readiness of brokers to add crypto transactions to apps, but the market’s ability to build a sustainable system. It should include clear storage rules, organized trading, a settlement framework, and products that are convenient and beneficial for clients to use.
What Laws Set the Market Boundaries
The basic legal foundation remains Federal Law No. 259-FZ ‘On Digital Financial Assets, Digital Currency, and Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation.’ It separates digital financial assets and digital currency, sets rules for participants in the regulated market, and restricts the use of cryptocurrency as a means of payment within Russia.
For Russian businesses, international settlements in cryptocurrency are allowed not as a free alternative to regular payments, but in a regulated format: through an experimental legal regime, in compliance with the requirements of the Bank of Russia, participant identification, and reporting rules. Domestic settlements for goods and services in cryptocurrency do not become a legal means of payment.
Taxes, Oversight, and Wallets
Income from cryptocurrency transactions is taxed. Individuals pay personal income tax on the financial result and declare it in their tax reporting, while companies account for profits from such transactions when calculating profit tax.
Oversight is built around client identification, transaction monitoring, anti-money laundering rules, and market participant reporting to regulators. The more transactions go through exchanges, digital depositories, and settlement services, the easier it is for authorities to track asset movements and match them to tax obligations.
P2P exchangers remain a sensitive area: if a service actually helps exchange cryptocurrency as an intermediary, it will have to fit into the regulated framework and meet client verification requirements. Cold wallets as a way of self-storage are not prohibited, but transactions with assets when entering the regulated infrastructure will be associated with identification, reporting, and tax accounting.
Asset Storage Becomes a Separate Business
The key question of the new regime is storage. The Russian model assumes the emergence of digital depositories: they will record rights to crypto assets in a way similar to how classic depositories now account for securities.
The Bank of Russia proposes capital requirements for such organizations from 50 million to 250 million rubles. The specific threshold depends on the functions the participant assumes: just rights accounting, asset storage, settlement support, or a broader set of services.
- Digital depository with the basic function of accounting for rights to crypto assets — from 50 million rubles.
- A participant who combines accounting, storage, and interaction with the settlement framework should aim for a higher capital threshold.
- An extended model with several infrastructure functions may require capital closer to the upper limit — up to 250 million rubles.
In the classic crypto industry, an exchange often combines several roles at once: it accepts client money, executes the transaction, and stores assets. The Russian structure gradually separates these functions among different participants.
For investors, this approach can reduce infrastructure risks. But for businesses, launching a product becomes more complicated and expensive: capital, control procedures, a technological base, and a clear interaction model with other market participants are needed. In this logic, a license and the right to work with digital assets will be no less important than technical access to trading itself.
Liquidity Will Not Appear by Itself
The second major challenge is liquidity. The law allows organized cryptocurrency trading, and exchanges will be able to determine trading modes and calculate market prices themselves. But a single trading platform does not yet create a deep market.
To keep prices stable and spreads acceptable for mass clients, large participants, market makers, and sufficient cryptocurrency volume in circulation are needed. Otherwise, Russian quotes may diverge significantly from global ones, and each transaction for investors will be less favorable than on familiar crypto exchanges.
This issue is also important for traditional financial infrastructure. If large platforms, including the Moscow Exchange, look at the new model, they will have to assess not only client demand but also the ability to ensure high-quality trade execution.
The List of Available Assets Will Be Limited
For non-qualified investors, the regulator proposes allowing only the most liquid cryptocurrencies. The key criteria are as follows:
- High capitalization.
- Sufficient trading volumes.
- A price history of at least five years.
In practice, such a list may include the largest and most liquid assets, primarily Bitcoin and Ether. The final list will depend on the Bank of Russia’s criteria and market data, and it makes sense to review it as liquidity, capitalization, and trading history of individual assets change.
At launch, the regulated market will most likely not resemble a familiar crypto exchange with hundreds of coins. We are talking about a short list of large assets, where Bitcoin looks like one of the most obvious candidates.
This approach reflects the Central Bank’s cautious stance. It seeks to reduce risks for retail clients and prevent overly volatile or insufficiently transparent assets from entering the regulated framework.
The Product’s Economics Will Be the Main Test
Even if it is technically easy to add cryptocurrency to an app, financial companies will have to recalculate the product’s economics. The main cost items will be:
- Storage.
- Compliance.
- Trade execution.
- Reporting.
- New regulatory requirements.
The Bank of Russia already proposes taking crypto risks into account in market participants’ financial stability indicators. This means intermediaries will have to assess not only potential demand but also the capital load, operational processes, and client service costs.
The main question for brokers and other intermediaries will be simple: can they offer fees that clients consider competitive compared to a regular crypto exchange? If the answer is no, formal access to cryptocurrency will not become a mass product.
The Second Stage for the Russian Crypto Market
Kirill Pistsov suggests considering September 1 not as the final launch, but as the start of the second stage of market development. The first stage was legislative: the rules went through the political and legal framework, including the State Duma, and determined who and under what conditions can work with cryptocurrency.
Now the more difficult part begins: the rules must be turned into infrastructure where investors can trade conveniently, with liquidity, and with clear costs.
The external environment, including sanctions due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, also makes settlement reliability and infrastructure stability especially important for the Russian financial market. But within the new crypto model, the key test remains practical: the law has already allowed the regulated market to exist, and now participants must prove that it can work in the interests of clients and businesses.
