Putin signs law setting Russia’s crypto rules, with licensed intermediaries and exchange thresholds

Russia has now put a legal framework around cryptocurrency circulation, but with the usual fine print: only licensed intermediaries can handle transactions, domestic payments with crypto stay banned, and only the biggest coins are eligible for public exchange trading. For PSPs and crypto businesses, the useful part is not the headline—it is the timing, the licensing funnel, and the fact that Russia is trying to separate retail payments from a controlled trading market.

1. Vladimir Putin signed the law “On Digital Currencies and Digital Rights,” which regulates the circulation of cryptocurrencies in Russia and creates a legal basis for a lawful crypto market. The law limits operations to licensed participants: trading organizers, brokers, exchange services, trust managers, and digital depositories for accounting and custody of digital currencies.
2. Crypto will still not be allowed as payment for goods, services, or works inside Russia. The law keeps that ban in place, while allowing exceptions for foreign trade contracts, miner payouts, network fees, transactions with securities, other cryptocurrencies, and digital rights.
3. The law enters into force on 1 September, except for some provisions. One key rule—requiring crypto transactions to go through licensed intermediaries—will start on 1 July 2027.
4. Crypto exchange services may be provided only by Russian legal entities with own funds of at least 15 million rubles and inclusion in the Bank of Russia register. Until 1 July 2027, they are allowed to operate without being entered into that register.
5. The law also sets trading criteria for cryptocurrencies admitted to exchange trading. Public trading will be limited to large cryptocurrencies that meet Bank of Russia requirements: average market capitalization over two years above 5 trillion rubles and average daily trading volume above 1 trillion rubles. The central bank may also temporarily admit other cryptocurrencies to public trading for up to six months. Exchanges may offer any cryptocurrencies to qualified investors, and those transactions will not count as public circulation.

There is a second legislative track still moving in Russia: a draft law on liability for illegal mining. It has passed only the first reading in May, with the second reading not yet scheduled.