Russia drafts 0.5–3% fees and trading limits for USDT, USDC, and BNB as State Duma crypto bill moves to second reading

Russia is preparing a targeted regime for “unfriendly” crypto assets, with Deputy Finance Minister Ivan Chebeskov saying the plan could include fees, trading limits, and technical safeguards for USDT, USDC, and BNB. For PSPs and exchanges touching Russia, the point is straightforward: the state is trying to make Western-linked crypto more expensive and less convenient while preserving the rails it wants for cross-border settlement.

1. On June 9, on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF 2026), Chebeskov said Moscow is preparing measures aimed specifically at so-called unfriendly crypto assets, naming USDT, USDC, and BNB. Freedom Global analyst Vladimir Chernov estimates the fees at 0.5–2% per transaction for broadly classified unfriendly assets, rising to as much as 3% per transaction for dollar-pegged stablecoins.
2. Chebeskov described the package as including “technical protection measures” and “economic incentives, commissions or recommendations” that would encourage citizens to own other assets, according to Izvestia. In practice, that is a state-guided nudge away from dollar-linked instruments and toward ruble-based or BRICS-aligned alternatives.
3. The assets singled out share a political problem as much as a payments one: their issuers, Tether, Circle, and Binance, are Western-linked entities that have previously frozen wallets tied to sanctioned addresses. Russia is explicitly trying to factor that risk into its regulatory setup.
4. The measures are not law yet. They sit inside the second reading process for the State Duma bill titled On Digital Currency and Digital Rights, which passed its first reading 327–13 on April 21, 2026.
5. That first reading already set out the core architecture: five license categories for crypto operators, broad supervisory authority for the Bank of Russia, a continuing ban on domestic crypto payments, and an explicit carve-out for cross-border crypto settlements. That carve-out matters because it is the mechanism Russia has been using to route trade around sanctions.

For high-risk operators, the practical takeaway is that Russia is not moving toward general crypto openness. It is trying to separate what it tolerates for external settlement from what it wants to discourage inside the domestic market, with the usual blunt instruments: fees, limits, and compliance pressure.