Russia’s State Duma passed a law on Tuesday regulating the distribution of crypto and digital rights for the first time, a framework that sets rules for crypto exchanges, digital depositories, and investors while opening a government-supervised channel for cross-border trade.
Lawmakers removed bill No. 1194918-8, entitled “On Digital Currency and Digital Rights,” in its second and third readings, the final phase in this chamber, according to a non-official Russian news agency. Tass.
The measure is headed to the Federal Council and President Vladimir Putin for signature, a process expected to take two more weeks before the law goes into effect. It closes the momentum for legislation that has passed through parliament throughout the year.
Legalization or taxation?
The law does not turn bitcoin into a currency that a Russian can use in a store. The ruble remains the only official currency for goods and services within Russia, a ban on crypto payments, and a bar on advertising promoting such use goes hand in hand with it.
What the law does is give crypto a legal identity and a set of gates. It recognizes digital assets as assets, licenses the firms that manage them, allows investors to buy within set limits, and clears crypto for use in foreign exchange.
In clear words, Russia is not freeing crypto in everyday life; it brings crypto inside the country’s fence, where the government can watch it, tax it, and direct it to the uses it wants.
Anatoly Aksakov, the chairman of the Duma Committee on the Financial Market, said that the bill “is intended to create legal conditions for the operation of cryptocurrencies in our country,” and that lawmakers “measured” the industry’s response.
From September 1, 2026, the Bank of Russia will license five categories of participants – exchanges, dealers, management companies, depositories, and exchangers – the backbone of the new market.
Firms on special registration may initiate exchange activity, with a grace period of up to July 1, 2027, before that requirement takes effect. Such firms must manage a minimum capital of 15 million rubles, another $190,000, and must join a self-regulatory organization.
The law defines exchange activity as the systematic purchase and sale of cryptocurrency on a personal account without an organized, “systematic” trade set in two or more deals per month for more than 3.5 million rubles.
Authorized trade channel
The commercial heart of the law resides in border carving. The draft authorizes what gray market networks do in the shadows: the settlement of foreign trade in crypto, outside the dollar-and-euro banking system that Western sanctions target. It gives the practice the stamp of the Bank of Russia.
Similar activity has gone through places like Garantex, a US law that closed in March 2025, and the ruble-pegged A7A5 stablecoin, a token that has moved tens of billions in sanctions-linked flows and the UK has named in every round of sanctions.
Russia’s crypto pivot
Moscow has positioned crypto trading as a route around sanctions for years; The new law creates a legal infrastructure.
The curve is sharp. In January 2022, weeks before the invasion of Ukraine, the Bank of Russia proposed a direct ban on crypto transactions and mining, and cast digital assets as a threat to financial stability.
That decision was long overdue as Western governments had to cut off Russian banks from SWIFT, a move that made trading dollars and euros more difficult. Four years of fighting ensued between the financial services that wanted crypto regulation and the central bank that wanted it banned.
Putin signed a draft law in August 2024 that allowed international mining and crypto payments; Tuesday’s bill is a permanent draft that replaces the trial.
Legal regulations for investors and coins
For investors, the law divides the market into two. Unqualified retail buyers can buy 300,000 rubles of cryptocurrency, close to $3,800, through one licensed intermediary each year, and can send up to 100,000 rubles abroad.
Eligible investors face a high ceiling – up to 3 million rubles for purchases and 1 million rubles for transfers abroad. Both parties must pass a risk awareness test, and qualifying status may rest in part on prior crypto experience. The tax administration is set to track securities regulations, with rates set to tighten as enforcement regulations come in. The tiered design follows previous steps that opened up access to bitcoin for retail buyers.
The law relies on monitoring rather than disclosing all wallets. Drafters abandoned an earlier plan to require fund owners to disclose addresses for individual funds; reporting will focus on transaction volumes and account balances.
Large transfers to foreign or third-party accounts are subject to a 48-hour hold, which is a window for authorities to review the funds before they can be removed.
Assets that clear strict limits can be traded in regulated areas – market average over 5 billion rubles within two years and average daily volume over 1 billion rubles – limits expected to include pre-trade in bitcoin and ether, with solana possibly a third. Privacy coins that hide transaction data remain banned.
The main provisions take effect on September 1, 2026, with a transition period for existing users beginning on March 1, 2027.
The episode marks another step in Russia’s ongoing crypto crackdown, from a bid to make digital assets part of “everyday currency” to a ban on unregistered mining that carries the threat of forced labor.
