Russia Sets Crypto Market Entry Rules for Oct. 5, 2026
The framework covers exchanges and digital depositories, while separate retail-investor rules remain pending.
Russia’s Bank of Russia will implement new rules Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, for admitting cryptocurrency exchanges and related infrastructure providers to official registers, while separate retail-investor rules remain pending.
The framework covers cryptocurrency exchanges, digital depositories and operators of information systems issuing digital financial rights. It sets qualification requirements for management and designated officers, required application documents and grounds for rejecting an application.
The Bank of Russia will have up to 30 working days to decide whether to enter a cryptocurrency exchange into the relevant register after receiving the final required document. Decisions involving digital depositories may take up to 60 working days.
The effective date does not itself approve any exchange or digital depository, guarantee that an application will succeed or establish that customer trading can begin. No specific exchange or digital depository has been confirmed as admitted to the new registers.
Retail-investor rules are being handled separately under Russia’s broader cryptocurrency law, which took effect Sept. 1, 2026. The law allows qualified and non-qualified investors to transact through intermediaries under different conditions.
Non-qualified investors may buy approved cryptocurrencies after passing a test, subject to an annual limit of 300,000 rubles per intermediary. The limit applies to most liquid cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and Tether’s USDt (USDT) appeared in a draft list published Aug. 11 for assets eligible for public exchange trading. As of Sept. 28, the related retail-investor ordinance remained under registration, so the draft list had not taken effect.
As of Monday, Sept. 28, the Bank of Russia’s cryptocurrency-market page listed the related retail-investor ordinance as under registration. Qualified investors are described as having broader access to cryptocurrencies without the 300,000-ruble annual purchase limit, while still facing testing and crypto-asset risk disclosures.
The next concrete step is the Oct. 5 effective date for the infrastructure-registration rules.
