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Ahmed Barakat
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The Russian Duma has Pass The first reading of a landmark cryptocurrency regulation bill that formally legitimizes digital assets for international settlements, a direct legislative response to Western sanctions that have cut off major Russian banks from the global payments infrastructure, including SWIFT.
The draft law was approved for its first reading with a framework Built On the regulatory concept of the Russian Central Bank published in late December 2025, accelerating years of intermittent policy debate into concrete law.
Range is important. Russian exporters and importers who move goods across an estimated $240 billion trade volume and face payment friction now have a legal path to settle contracts in cryptocurrency.
The Kremlin is working to build an alternative financial line, and now the geometry of this line is clearly visible for the first time.
The question the market should be asking is not whether this bill will become law, but rather whether it will almost certainly become law. The question is how quickly OFAC can move to close the corridor it opens.
- Your training: The Russian Duma passed the draft law on regulating cryptocurrencies in its first reading; Two additional readings in addition to Federation Council approval and presidential signature are required before the law can be enacted.
- Basic codification: The bill allows the use of digital assets for international cross-border settlements by Russian companies – domestic trading as a means of payment remains prohibited.
- Investor categories: Unqualified retail investors face a 300,000 rubles ($3,800 USD) Maximum annual purchase through any one broker; Eligible investors do not face any size restrictions.
- Asset eligibility: Only cryptocurrencies with the highest market cap 5 trillion rubles (66.6 billion US dollars) And an eligible five-year trading history – Bitcoin and Ethereum are the first approvals expected.
- Timetable: Trading can begin on the licensed platform July 1, 2026; Unlicensed platforms face an effective complete ban July 1, 2027.
- View item: The Duma Committee on Competition has already pointed out the danger of over-regulation – and more amendments are expected before final approval.
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What the Russian cryptocurrency bill actually allows, and what it intentionally does not allow
The central provision of Russia’s cryptocurrency bill draws a sharp line: cryptocurrencies are legal for international trade settlements, not for buying coffee in Moscow.
Domestic trading as a means of payment remains off the table, a concession to the Bank of Russia’s long-standing concerns about monetary sovereignty and capital flight.
The tiered investor structure is the most operationally important element of the bill. Non-qualified retail participants are capped at 300,000 rubles (about US$3,800) per year through any single licensed broker.
Qualified investors, banks, professional traders and high-net-worth individuals face no cap. The Bank of Russia is at the heart of the oversight structure: it issues platform licenses, approves or blocks transactions, and maintains the sole authority by which digital assets can be legally traded within Russia’s licensed infrastructure.
Asset eligibility criteria are intentionally narrow. Only cryptocurrencies that have crossed the market capitalization threshold of 5 trillion rubles (US$66.6 billion) with a confirmed trading history of five years are downgraded. Bitcoin and Ethereum are the obvious first qualifiers, a provision that acts less as an initial framework and more as an actual bill for Bitcoin and Ethereum with room for expansion.
The government is also targeting tax parity between digital asset investors and traditional bondholders, a sign that Moscow views regulated participation in cryptocurrencies as a legitimate asset class, rather than a gray area that can be tolerated.
Bitcoin mining and local compliance: what Russian operators face now
Along with the framework for international settlements, the draft law introduces the first official regulatory structure for Bitcoin mining on Russian territory.
Individual and industrial miners must register under a mandatory system; Acting outside of this registry will constitute unlicensed activity once the July 1, 2027, unlicensed platforms deadline has passed.
The federal government retains explicit authority to ban mining operations in areas experiencing power shortages, a requirement intended to protect the national power grid during periods of peak demand.
Russia’s cryptocurrency mining sector has expanded significantly since China’s 2021 mining ban, and unregulated power withdrawal has become a documented concern for infrastructure in Siberia and the Far East.
Uzbekistan’s approach is a 10-year tax exemption within a designated special zone with mandatory tax exemption Renewable energy requirementsIt presents a paradoxical model of how post-Soviet countries compete for mining capital.
The State Duma Committee on Competition Protection has already expressed concern that too stringent licensing requirements could backfire, leaving Russian miners and cryptocurrency companies in the same gray economy that the bill aims to eliminate. We expect the second reading to be the battleground for those specific implementation limits.
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