Russia nears crypto law legalising Bitcoin for foreign trade

Russia’s State Duma will hold its second and third readings on the "On Digital Currency and Digital Rights" bill on Tuesday. Following expected approval, the legislation requires Senate passage and President Vladimir Putin's signature before taking effect on September 1. Anatoly Aksakov, chairman of the Duma's Financial Markets Committee, anticipates the final sign-off will take roughly two weeks.

The legislation’s primary economic function is sanctions evasion. While domestic cryptocurrency payments remain strictly banned to protect the ruble, Russian firms will gain a legal mechanism to pay foreign counterparties using digital assets. The European Union banned all crypto transactions with Russian entities in February, accelerating Moscow's push for an alternative financial infrastructure.

The Bank of Russia will oversee a new licensing regime for crypto exchanges, brokers, and custodians. The central bank retains the power to block any asset deemed a threat to financial stability. The bill's passage was originally targeted for July 1 but was delayed by coordination bottlenecks between government agencies.

Major domestic lenders are already positioning themselves for the new framework. Both VTB and T-Bank have announced plans to build crypto depositories. Unlicensed platforms face a total ban starting July 1, 2027.

Strict asset eligibility criteria will effectively channel institutional demand toward the largest market-cap tokens. To trade legally, a cryptocurrency must boast a market capitalisation exceeding 5 trillion rubles, roughly $65 billion, alongside a five-year verified trading history. "These will definitely include BTC and ETH," said Alexandra Fedotova, a lawyer tracking the legislation. "Possibly SOL or TON may be added, given their popularity in Russia. Everything else is only for qualified investors."

Retail participation is tightly capped at 300,000 rubles, or about $3,800, annually through a single licensed intermediary. Professional investors face no limits but are barred from purchasing privacy coins like Monero, Zcash, and Dash. "The CBR directly states: you cannot buy coins that hide recipients," Fedotova noted. "If you can't build a transaction graph and see where the money came from, such an asset will not pass AML verification."

This trading framework completes a regulatory architecture Moscow has constructed over a decade of escalating penalties. Russia has operated under Western financial sanctions since 2014, with severe restrictions imposed following its 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The bill builds directly on a crypto mining law Putin signed in August 2024, which propelled Russia to become the world's second-largest Bitcoin producer behind the United States, according to the 2026 Hashrate Index.