Participants in foreign economic activity to have access to all types of cryptocurrency transactions - Central Bank of Russia
NIZHNY NOVGOROD. May 19 (Interfax) - The bill on regulating the cryptocurrency market in Russia envisages that all types of operations and transactions with cryptocurrencies will be available to participants in foreign economic activity, Yekaterina Lozgacheva, Director of the Central Bank's Department of Strategic Financial Market Development, said.
"The bill envisages all types of operations and transactions, and interactions with all types of counterparties for participants in foreign economic activity. This is precisely the issue of maximizing potential where it is needed," Lozgacheva said during CIPR-2026.
"Once the bill becomes law, which we expect to happen during the spring session [of the State Duma], then it should enter into force on July 1. The Central Bank must then implement regulatory legal acts. We plan to implement all the necessary legal provisions in the third quarter, so that the first operations could begin in the fourth quarter," Lozgacheva added.
The bill contains over 40 bylaws. "The first metric, perhaps, is how well the Central Bank and we, as the federal executive body within the government, prepare the bylaw," Director of the Financial Policy Department of the Finance Ministry Alexei Yakovlev said.
Lozgacheva noted that the new regulation would allow brokerage banks to combine their activities with crypto exchanges, and that the Central Bank would have the right to expand the list of digital currencies available to non-qualified investors.
"The market is developing quite rapidly, and we would like to see this element of flexibility that we have discussed. Therefore, then the Central Bank is currently considering the possibility of providing the authority to approve certain instruments additionally if there is a need, given how instruments are developing, the emerging market, and the practices, requests, and needs of citizens regarding the use of cryptocurrencies, ," Lozgacheva told reporters on the sidelines of CIPR-2026.
When asked whether the Central Bank was considering increasing the limit on cryptocurrency transactions for non-qualified individuals at 600,000 rubles, Lozgacheva said that the current limit meets investors' needs. "Looking at the discussed limit of 300,000 rubles and comparing it with the average account balance and average income, one sees that it does, in fact, cover the significant needs of a substantial number of citizens," she said.
The State Duma in its first reading on April 21 adopted the bill establishing a legal basis for circulating digital currencies (cryptocurrencies) in the Russian Federation. The bill stipulates that starting July 1, 2026, individuals and companies will be able to purchase cryptocurrency legally through licensed intermediaries, namely exchangers registered with the Central Bank, brokers, and trustees. Qualified investors are expected to be able to purchase crypto assets without restrictions, except for anonymous investors, while unqualified investors will be allowed to purchase up to 300,000 rubles per year through a single intermediary. Cryptocurrency transactions within the country will remain prohibited.
