Russia blocks Bitcoin transfers to self-custody wallets under Federal Law No. 282-FZ

The Bank of Russia has said that transfers of digital currency, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and XRP, to non-custodial or self-custody crypto wallets are prohibited under the country’s new crypto framework. For PSPs and crypto businesses, the point is straightforward: Russia is moving activity into state-supervised rails and away from wallet-level anonymity.

1. The central bank’s October 12, 2026 note says transfers to non-custodial wallets are not allowed, and Finbold analyzed that note on October 15. The restriction covers wallets that generate, store and use private keys locally to sign transactions directly on a blockchain.
2. The Bank of Russia also clarified that a crypto transfer from a digital account to a non-custodial wallet belonging to the same individual is not permitted under the same law. In other words, this is not just about third-party transfers; self-transfer is also blocked.
3. There is one future date in the framework: under Part 1 of Article 30 of Federal Law No. 282-FZ, different parties in Russia use self-custodial wallets by July 1, 2027. Until then, the central bank’s line is that transactions must go strictly through state-supervised intermediaries and organized trading.
4. Federal Law No. 282-FZ was enacted on September 1, 2026. The law is framed as a way for local businesses and exporters to handle cross-border transactions and international payments amid sanctions pressure, while also banning the use of cryptocurrencies in payments within Russia.
5. The broader policy logic is not subtle: Russia is pushing crypto activity through regulated intermediaries to reduce Web3 anonymity, while also trying to protect the domestic financial system from capital flight, domestic tax evasion and unmonitored outflows.

Russia has been sanctioned by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Australia, Switzerland and several other allied Western nations over its conflict with Ukraine. That backdrop explains why the new rules are built around control rather than openness: for high-risk operators, the relevant signal is that wallet-to-wallet freedom is being narrowed in favor of supervised rails.