- Russia‘s State Duma will hold final votes on a comprehensive crypto bill on July 21, with enactment expected by September 1.
- The law permits cryptocurrency only for international trade, allowing Russian companies to bypass Western banking sanctions.
- Only Bitcoin and Ethereum currently meet the strict criteria for legal trading, while privacy coins like Monero are banned entirely.
Russia’s State Duma is set to hold the final two readings of its first comprehensive cryptocurrency law on Tuesday, aiming to legalize digital assets for international trade while keeping domestic crypto payments prohibited. The bill, titled “On Digital Currency and Digital Rights,” still requires Senate approval and President Vladimir Putin’s signature, a process expected to take another two weeks before the law takes effect on September 1.
The legislation creates a licensing regime for crypto exchanges, brokers, and custodians, with the Bank of Russia acting as the authority issuing permits and banning any cryptocurrency deemed a financial threat. Major institutions like VTB and T-Bank have already announced plans to build crypto depositories.
To trade legally, a cryptocurrency must have a market capitalization above 5 trillion rubles, roughly $65 billion, and at least five years of verified trading history on a licensed foreign exchange. According to Parlamentskaya Gazeta, lawyer Alexandra Fedotova stated these will definitely include BTC and ETH, with SOL or TON possibly added.
Regular investors face an annual purchase cap of 300,000 rubles, about $3,800, through a single licensed intermediary, while professional investors face no limit but cannot buy privacy coins like Monero, ZCash, or Dash. “The CBR directly states: you cannot buy coins that hide recipients,” Fedotova said, noting that such assets fail anti-money laundering verification.
The law permits cryptocurrency only for international trade, allowing Russian companies to pay foreign partners outside Western banking channels, while the ruble remains the only legal payment method domestically. Kaplan Panesh, deputy chair of the State Duma’s Budget and Taxes Committee, explained that legislators designed the bill to preserve the ruble and circumvent sanctions restrictions, according to Kommersant.
Russia’s crypto mining law, signed in August 2024, made the country the world’s second Bitcoin producer after the United States, according to the Hashrate Index, 2026. Unlicensed cryptocurrency platforms face a full ban starting July 1, 2027.
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