The State Duma bill on cryptocurrencies will be considered in the second reading as early as July 21: the document is intended to set clear rules for the market, establish the status of digital currency, and strengthen control over operations with crypto assets in Russia.
Under the new model, cryptocurrency will receive the status of property. This is an important shift: digital assets will no longer remain in a gray area, and market participants will be able to rely on a clearer legal regime for cryptocurrencies.
The key role is assigned to the regulator. The Central Bank (Bank of Russia) will be given the authority to oversee market participants, including intermediaries through whom exchange operations are conducted. Control will be built around admitting participants to the regulated framework, requirements for operations, and transparency of digital currency flows, so that risks for investors and the financial system are reduced.
Digital Assets Enter Exchange Infrastructure
One of the notable points of the bill is related to digital financial assets. They are planned to be allowed to trade on open exchange platforms. If the mechanism works smoothly, the market may gain more liquidity, and investors will have additional tools for working with digital assets.
The storage and accounting of cryptocurrencies is proposed to be transferred to specialized digital depositories. This scheme is needed to reduce operational risks and make asset circulation safer. In essence, an infrastructure is being formed that is similar in logic to what already exists in the securities market.
The bill separately addresses intermediaries through whom operations with digital currencies are conducted. This logic may also apply to online digital currency exchange services if they operate as participants in the regulated framework and serve client transactions.
Unqualified Investors Will Be Protected by Limits and Testing
A separate regime is provided for private investors without qualified status. This refers to unqualified individuals: before purchasing digital assets, they will have to undergo testing. This should help those who are just beginning to understand the crypto market to better understand the risks.
For such investors, the framework looks like this:
- Investor category: private investor without qualified status.
- Purchase limit: no more than 300,000 rubles per year through each intermediary for the most liquid cryptocurrencies.
- Testing requirements: before purchasing digital assets, a test must be taken.
- Applicable restrictions: access to tools is retained, but excessively large investments in a volatile asset are limited.
Currency in digital form remains a high-risk instrument, so the authors of the approach are betting not on a complete ban, but on controlled access. For retail investors, this means more rules, but also more legal certainty.
Non-Custodial Wallets and Large Transfers
The bill separately describes operations with non-custodial wallets. These are wallets where the private keys remain with the user, meaning they have full control over access to funds.
The rules for transfers between non-custodial wallets are as follows:
- Type of operation: transfer between non-custodial wallets.
- Threshold amount: over 100,000 rubles.
- Cooling-off period: 48 hours.
- Additional conditions: a large transaction does not go through instantly, giving the user time to reconsider the decision.
This mechanism will apply specifically to large transfers between such wallets: an operation above the threshold is paused before execution. This also helps reduce fraud risks and uses regulation as an additional barrier against schemes related to money laundering.
What Will Change for Miners and Owners of Foreign Wallets
Miners will receive more legal tools for risk management. They will be allowed to:
- Hedge currency risks.
- Use derivative financial instruments.
- Pay infrastructure fees.
For investors who conduct operations through foreign crypto wallets, new obligations and transparency requirements will appear:
- Notify tax authorities about foreign operations.
- Make the movement of digital assets more transparent for control.
- Link operations with digital assets to tax accounting.
The issue of liability for violations may be linked to general financial regulation standards, including the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, if such provisions are applied to digital currency market participants.
The general logic of the initiative coincides with the course toward streamlining the digital economy, which in the government framework is associated, among other things, with the direction of Dmitry Grigorenko’s work.
When the New Rules Will Take Effect
The main part of the regulations is expected to come into force on September 1, 2026. Businesses, investors, miners, and infrastructure participants will have time to restructure processes and prepare to operate under the new legal regime.
The main idea of the bill is not to remove cryptocurrencies from circulation, but to integrate them into a regulated financial system. For the market, this means more control, but at the same time a chance to get clear rules of the game.
