Russia’s new crypto law is in force, but the market still has no infrastructure

Almost a month after the new crypto regulation took effect in Russia, the practical answer is: not much has changed. The key problem for anyone trying to run payments or exchange flows is that the legal rails are still missing, while the market remains split between a narrow licensed track and the same gray channels that existed before.

1. Russia’s central bank registry of operators of digital currencies currently includes only Moscow Exchange and St. Petersburg Exchange. СМИ reports that 10 crypto exchangers allegedly received licenses, but the Central Bank’s website does not show that information, and the regulator says the first licenses will begin to be issued by the end of 2026.
2. The current exchange market is still operating normally during the transition period, which runs until 1 July 2027. There is no punishment yet for violating the law that has already entered into force, and for an ordinary user there is still no platform where crypto can be bought or sold legally.
3. From 1 July, the market is set to split in two. Legal exchangers will work in 99% of cases with legal entities, including sole proprietors who order goods from abroad and pay with crypto. For them, the new setup is simpler on paper: expenses are easier to show to the tax authorities, the reporting paper trail exists, and banks will have fewer questions about transfers.
4. Everyone else will remain in the gray zone: Telegram-based desks, gray exchangers working only with referred clients, and foreign platforms. Working with foreign platforms is not prohibited, the problem is moving funds back into the Russian banking and ruble system.
5. The Ministry of Finance wants to bring owners of crypto assets onto the domestic market. The stake is more than 10 million wallets held by Russians on foreign platforms. According to the Central Bank of Russia, around 20 million people in Russia use cryptocurrencies, and total crypto holdings amount to about 3.7 trillion rubles. Under the new rules, from 1 July 2027, non-qualified investors will be able to invest no more than 300k rubles per year through one intermediary.

The Federal Tax Service will also start tracking non-custodial wallets: Russian tax residents will have to report crypto transactions made on cold wallets, meaning addresses not administered by domestic digital custodians. In practice, the enforcement question is messier than the statute: authorities often cannot prove that a specific wallet belongs to a specific person, but if a seed phrase is found on paper during a search, the case can quickly be reframed as tax evasion and failure to disclose transactions. How all of this will work remains unclear, and that is true for the law as a whole.