Russia has taken its biggest step yet toward a supervised crypto market. The State Duma passed a landmark digital-asset bill on Tuesday that brings crypto trading under government oversight while, for the first time, opening the market to ordinary retail investors — a sharp reversal from a framework that had largely confined participation to the wealthy and specially qualified.

A Registry for Exchanges, Brokers, and Custodians

At its core, the legislation sets rules for the intermediaries: crypto exchanges, custodians, and brokers will have to join a special registry to operate legally. Existing platforms get a roughly one-year grace period to complete their registration, according to state news agency TASS — a runway meant to bring the current market into compliance rather than shut it down overnight.

Two Tiers of Investors, Two Different Ceilings

The retail opening is the headline change. Everyday investors will be allowed to buy the most liquid cryptocurrencies through registered intermediaries after passing a knowledge test. The report didn't specify which assets qualify, though major tokens such as bitcoin, ether, and Solana are likely candidates. Their participation comes with a hard limit: retail buyers can purchase up to 300,000 rubles — roughly $3,900 — per year through each intermediary.

Qualified investors face no such cap. After passing their own knowledge tests, they can buy any crypto assets without volume limits, and prior crypto-trading experience can count toward earning qualified status. The two-tier design lets Moscow widen access while keeping a tight leash on how much ordinary citizens can put at risk — treating retail crypto as a contained asset class rather than a mass-market free-for-all.

The Domestic Payment Ban Stays

One red line is unchanged: Russia is keeping its ban on using crypto to pay for goods and services domestically, a measure widely understood as protecting the ruble's dominance. Russians can own and trade digital assets through regulated channels, but not spend them at home.

The bill carves out targeted exceptions — for foreign-trade settlement between Russians and overseas counterparties, for crypto obtained through mining, and for certain securities-related transactions. That cross-border allowance formalizes a direction Russia has been moving since 2024, when it began permitting crypto in international trade under an experimental framework after Western sanctions cut off access to conventional payment rails. To police the domestic ban, banks will be required to block transfers to recipients they suspect of running unauthorized crypto exchanges.

What Happens Next

The bill cleared its first reading back in April, when it was initially expected to take effect July 1; most provisions are now slated to go live on September 1. It isn't law yet — the measure still needs to pass Russia's Federation Council and be signed by President Vladimir Putin before taking effect.

Taken together, the legislation reflects Russia's evolving posture: not prohibition, but tightly supervised participation — licensed intermediaries, gated retail access, strict caps, and a firewall between investment and everyday spending. For a country navigating sanctions and guarding its currency, the design threads a careful needle: legitimizing crypto as an investment and a cross-border settlement tool while refusing to let it compete with the ruble at the checkout counter.

Source: Reporting via The Block / TradingView News, citing state news agency TASS. This article is for informational purposes only and is not investment advice.