Russia sets a 300,000 ruble yearly cap for retail crypto purchases under its new crypto law

Russia’s new crypto legislation does not exactly “legalize crypto” so much as funnel it into a controlled domestic setup. For high-risk payment providers, the key point is the same old one in a new wrapper: access will be narrow, licensed, and split between qualified and ordinary retail investors.

1. On July 31, Russia’s State Duma approved a law regulating cryptocurrencies, and Vladimir Putin signed it on August 4. The law is presented as a framework for legal crypto trading inside the country, but in practice it draws a hard line around what ordinary investors can buy and where they can buy it.
2. Starting July 1, 2027, Russians will face restrictions on crypto operations outside Russia’s internal market under the control of the Central Bank, licensed brokers, and exchanges. Qualified and non-qualified investors will not have the same menu: ordinary retail investors will only get access to cryptocurrencies that meet the Central Bank’s criteria, and only up to 300,000 rubles a year.
3. For a token to be admitted to public circulation, it must first be added to the Central Bank’s list. The regulator will check whether the asset meets specific requirements: market capitalization of at least 5 trillion rubles over the two years before inclusion, average daily trading volume above 1 trillion rubles, and continuous price data published on the coin’s official website for at least five years. The price data must come only from exchanges licensed in their country of registration.
4. Market participants quoted in the source say that, in practice, the retail universe looks very small. Yuri Brisov of Digital & Analogue Partners says only Bitcoin and Ethereum clearly fit the rules. Andrey Tugarin, founder of GMT Legal, says Solana could be added “with a stretch.” Stablecoins are a separate question: Tugarin says that under Russian law they are foreign digital instruments with a separate status, so they will probably be regulated separately.
5. The buying setup is also tightly boxed in. Crypto will be bought through a licensed intermediary or broker on an exchange, with the whole structure kept inside Russia. A significant part of the infrastructure is expected to be built on major banking groups that are under blocking sanctions after Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine. Tugarin says crypto will enter Russia through market makers, including Russian crypto exchanges with foreign infrastructure. Another route, according to BitBanker communications director Kirill Komalenkov, is domestic mining.

The piece also notes that Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed a decree banning mining in regions facing a high risk of electricity shortages. For PSPs and banking partners, that matters less as a headline than as a reminder of how tightly Russia is trying to control both the supply and distribution sides of the crypto stack.