Russia’s State Duma passes crypto regulation law, with licensed intermediaries and exchange listing rules

Russia’s State Duma has passed a law that sets out how cryptocurrencies can be bought, traded, and used under a formal legal framework. For PSPs and other high-risk payment operators, the important bit is not the political theater: it is the line between prohibited domestic payments and the narrow set of cases where crypto settlement will be permitted.

1. The bill, “On Digital Currency and Digital Rights,” was adopted in its second and third readings and lays out the infrastructure for a legal crypto market in Russia. Access to that market will be limited to licensed intermediaries: brokers, exchangers, and trust managers.
2. Domestic payments in cryptocurrency remain banned. Crypto still cannot be used to pay for goods, services, or work inside Russia, but the law carves out exceptions for foreign trade contracts, mining rewards, network fees, securities, other cryptocurrencies, and digital rights.
3. The law also sets criteria for cryptocurrencies that can be admitted to exchange trading. To qualify, a coin must have a market capitalization above 5 trillion rubles on average over the two years before inclusion, an average daily trading volume above 1 trillion rubles over the same period, and at least five years of trading history.
4. The Central Bank’s board will be able to admit cryptocurrencies that do not meet those conditions for up to six months. In addition, a trading venue may allow any cryptocurrencies outside the official list to be traded for qualified investors, and those trades will not count as public circulation.
5. Lawmakers also added a provision giving investors access to stablecoins. The law defines them as a “non-deliverable foreign digital instrument” that certifies only monetary claims. Transactions with cryptocurrency will be available to non-qualified investors after testing, with the Central Bank set to determine the limit; the regulator had previously said it intended to cap operations at 300,000 rubles through one professional participant.

The law is expected to enter into force on 1 September, with some provisions delayed. The requirement to execute crypto transactions through licensed intermediaries, for example, will start on 1 July 2027.