What's the hidden play behind Russia's green light for Crypto?
Written by KarenZ, Foresight News
Four years ago, this country was still debating proposals to ban crypto trading and mining; today, it is preparing to list Bitcoin, Ethereum, and USDT on its domestic exchanges.
This country is Russia.
On November 11, 2026, the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) officially released crypto trading rules, allowing stock exchanges to launch crypto trading operations starting November 22 after obtaining regulatory approval.
Just days prior, the CBR finalized the first batch of crypto assets eligible for retail investors: BTC, ETH, and USDT. The relevant regulations will take effect on November 17.
The Moscow Exchange, Russia's largest stock exchange, also plans to launch crypto trading on December 1. Additionally, Sberbank, one of Russia's largest banks, has obtained regulatory registration qualification to operate relevant crypto businesses.
Interestingly, while the CBR has relaxed restrictions on crypto trading, it has not revised its fundamental assessment of crypto-related risks.
In the regulatory framework released in December 2025, the CBR explicitly stated that it still regards crypto assets as high-risk instruments, citing their lack of clear issuers and jurisdictional guarantees, extreme price volatility, and exposure to sanction risks.
Even in the latest regulations, the CBR requires all investors to complete a relevant test to demonstrate their understanding of crypto investment risks before trading. Meanwhile, Russia still prohibits the use of crypto for payments of domestic goods and services.
If these risks have not disappeared, why has Russia still decided to open its doors to Crypto?
The answer lies not only in the crypto market itself, but also in Western financial sanctions, the practical pressure of cross-border trade settlement, and the massive crypto trading market in Russia that can no longer be ignored.
To understand this policy shift, it is helpful to first examine what exactly Russia has liberalized, and what restrictions it has retained.
BTC, ETH, USDT Approved for Trading, Russian Retail Investors Can Finally Enter the Market
On November 6, 2026, the CBR announced the first batch of crypto assets eligible for non-accredited investors: Bitcoin, Ethereum's native token ETH, and the USD-pegged stablecoin USDT issued by Tether.
Per the regulations, starting November 17, the aforementioned assets will be eligible for public trading on exchanges. Retail investors can purchase them via brokers, asset management firms, or crypto exchange service providers, either on exchanges or over-the-counter (OTC) markets.
However, this does not mean retail investors can participate in Crypto trading without limits.
Per the new rules, non-accredited investors are capped at an annual crypto purchase limit of 300,000 rubles (approximately 24,182 yuan) via a single intermediary. Accredited investors are exempt from this purchase limit.
Regardless of investor type, all parties must complete the relevant test to demonstrate understanding of crypto asset investment risks before trading.
Why are only BTC, ETH, and USDT on the first batch list?
The CBR's screening criteria include market capitalization, average daily trading volume, and a price trading record of at least five years in overseas markets. In other words, regulators prioritize assets with larger market size, better liquidity, and longer trading histories.
Moscow Exchange, Sberbank Enter the Market: Who Will Compete for Russia's Crypto Market?
If opening BTC, ETH, and USDT to retail investors marks an expansion of Russia's crypto market, the entry of traditional financial institutions may reshape the entire market's operational structure.
On September 1, 2026, the main provisions of Russia's Law on Digital Currency and Digital Rights officially came into effect, establishing a regulatory framework for crypto asset trading, exchange, custody, and related intermediary services.
On October 6, the CBR announced that the first batch of 5 digital custodians and 4 crypto exchange service providers had been added to the regulatory register.
The first batch of 5 digital custodians includes Sberbank, VTB Bank (Russia's Foreign Trade Bank), Voltari (a Russian digital financial asset infrastructure firm), Atomyze (a subsidiary of T-Technologies), and Cloud Infrastructure.
VTB Bank is also included in the crypto exchange service provider list. The other three crypto exchange service providers are T-Invest Lab under T-Technologies, Russian crypto exchange service firm Zefir, and Sistema-Crypto. Subsequently, Sberbank also joined the crypto exchange service provider register on October 12.
It should be noted that the first batch of institutions is not the full list of current market participants. As of November 6, the register of Russian digital custodians has expanded to 9 firms, while the register of crypto exchange service providers has reached 25.
Institutions such as Sberbank and VTB Bank already have massive retail client bases, financial product distribution channels, and robust compliance management systems. As relevant businesses are gradually liberalized, Russian investors will be able to participate in crypto trading via familiar domestic financial institutions, rather than relying entirely on overseas platforms.
Stock exchanges are also eager to tap into this new business opportunity.
The Moscow Exchange plans to launch crypto trading on December 1. In the initial phase, it will test relevant businesses with professional market participants, and rely on partner digital custodians to complete asset record-keeping and settlement arrangements.
On November 11, the CBR further clarified specific requirements for exchanges to operate crypto businesses, including registering trading participants, storing order and transaction records, monitoring trading activities, and reporting trading data to regulators.
The Flipside of Liberalized Trading: What Restrictions Apply to P2P Transactions and Personal Wallets?
The liberalization of trading channels does not mean Russia is relaxing all restrictions on crypto circulation.
Per the CBR's official explanation, the transitional arrangement allowing direct P2P crypto transactions between individuals under current law will end on July 1, 2027.
After that date, residents who are not designated market operators will, in principle, need to conduct crypto transactions via legally approved institutions, or trade directly with such institutions.
In addition, Russia has also set restrictions on the transfer of crypto assets held in digital accounts, including prohibiting individuals from transferring crypto assets from their digital accounts to their own non-custodial wallets, and banning direct asset transfers between individuals via addresses managed by digital custodians.
Of course, these provisions target specific operations under legal definitions, and cannot be simplistically interpreted as Russia having a full ban on individuals holding non-custodial wallets.
This also reveals the other side of Russia's crypto legalization drive. In the past, users could complete large volumes of transactions directly via overseas platforms or between individuals; going forward, Russia aims to channel more transactions through registered financial institutions with identity verification and complete trading records.
There is also a notable exception to Russia's new regulatory framework: exporters and importers can use crypto for cross-border settlement, including directly using different types of wallets, as long as they comply with relevant laws.
This shows that Russia has adopted different regulatory arrangements for domestic investment trading and cross-border trade settlement.
Daily Transactions Worth 50 Billion Rubles: Beyond Sanctions, There Are More Practical Reasons
Why did Russia decide to reverse its previous restrictive stance on crypto?
Western financial sanctions are an unavoidable backdrop, but they do not explain the full picture.
In February 2026, per a CoinDesk report, Russian Deputy Finance Minister Ivan Chebeskov disclosed a set of figures at the Alfa Talk conference: by his estimate, the average daily crypto trading volume in Russia is approximately 50 billion rubles (around $650 million at the time), while annual trading volume exceeds 10 trillion rubles (around $130 billion at the time).
For Russian regulators, a full ban on trading would not necessarily eliminate demand, and would instead likely push large volumes of transactions to remain outside the regulatory system.
In the absence of regulated intermediaries, it is harder for the government to grasp trading volumes, monitor fund sources, and investigate illegal activities.
Therefore, channeling trading through banks, stock exchanges, and digital custodians can not only create new revenue streams for the traditional financial sector, but also give regulators clearer entities to oversee.
This logic aligns with the CBR's statement when it proposed the experimental regulatory framework for crypto trading in 2025. At the time, the CBR explicitly stated that the goals of the framework include improving market transparency, establishing service standards, and expanding investment opportunities for eligible investors.
However, another practical pressure facing Russia comes from cross-border trade.
After the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out in 2022, Russia faced large-scale Western financial sanctions. In June 2024, the U.S. also imposed sanctions on financial infrastructure including the Moscow Exchange.
Restrictions on traditional bank payment channels have led some Russian enterprises to seek alternative settlement methods.
In July 2024, the Russian State Duma passed relevant legislation, allowing Russian import and export enterprises to use crypto for foreign trade settlement under an experimental legal framework.
This is a separate but related policy path to the current opening of trading to retail investors: the former primarily addresses cross-border settlement needs, while the latter focuses on establishing a domestic regulated crypto asset market.
Crypto has indeed already been integrated into some Russian trade settlement processes.
In March 2025, Reuters reported, citing four people with direct knowledge, that some Russian oil enterprises use crypto assets such as BTC, ETH, and USDT to facilitate currency conversion involving RMB, Indian rupees, and rubles when conducting oil trade with China and India.
However, the report also noted that crypto still accounted for a relatively small share of Russia's overall oil trade at the time, though it was showing a growing trend.
This shows that crypto can provide a new channel for some cross-border fund transfers, but cannot automatically solve all of Russia's international payment problems.
This is especially true for USDT. Allowing Russian residents to legally purchase USDT does not mean Russian enterprises can use USDT for international settlement without restrictions.
Russia has even already begun exploring ways to reduce its reliance on USD stablecoins.
In June 2026, the CBR released a consultation report on ruble stablecoins, discussing whether it is necessary to establish a dedicated legal framework.
The CBR noted that the global stablecoin market is still dominated by USD stablecoins, while more and more countries are researching domestic currency stablecoins to safeguard monetary sovereignty. However, Russia had not yet developed a mature ruble stablecoin market at the time. The CBR's document only discussed issues such as issuance, redemption, reserve assets, and issuer requirements, and did not announce the official launch of a ruble stablecoin.
Taken together, these changes show that Russia's demand for Crypto extends beyond investment.
On one hand, the massive domestic trading market requires regulation and standardization; on the other hand, financial sanctions continue to increase the complexity of international settlement, prompting Russia to explore fund transfer methods beyond traditional banking channels.
However, these two sets of needs are not fully aligned.
Cross-border settlement requires broad international liquidity and counterparty recognition, while domestic regulation places more emphasis on identity verification, compliant intermediaries, and fund flow control.
The test Russia faces next is not only whether it can establish a legal trading market, but also how it can strike a balance between strict regulation and actual market demand.
Over Four Years, Russia Has Shifted from Opposition to Acceptance
Looking back at Russia's policy changes over the past four years, it is clear that this shift did not happen overnight.
In January 2022, the CBR released a consultation report titled *Crypto: Trends, Risks, and Regulation*.
The report took a very hardline stance on crypto, arguing that the popularization of crypto could threaten household wealth, financial stability, and economic security, and proposed measures to restrict crypto circulation, trading organization activities, and mining within Russia.
It should be emphasized that the proposals put forward at the time were regulatory recommendations, and did not mean Russia had implemented a full ban on individuals holding or trading crypto.
But this document sufficiently reflected the CBR's stance at the time: crypto was largely viewed as a source of risk to be restricted, rather than a financial market to be actively developed.
Subsequently, Russia's policies began to gradually loosen.
In 2024, Russia passed legislation to provide a legal basis for crypto cross-border settlement under a specific experimental framework, and established a regulatory regime for mining.
But at this time, Russia's focus was still mainly on the use of crypto in international trade, rather than whether retail investors could legally purchase Bitcoin.
By March 2025, the CBR, per presidential directives, proposed a three-year experimental regulatory framework for crypto trading, allowing a small number of "specially accredited investors" to participate.
This threshold was extremely high.
Per the initial framework, individual investors needed to hold more than 100 million rubles (approximate value at the time) in securities and deposit assets, and have an annual income of over 50 million rubles from the previous year, to be eligible.
In other words, the policy approach at the time was to first allow a very small number of investors with high risk tolerance to enter the market.
However, just nine months later, policies took another step forward.
In December 2025, the CBR released a more systematic market regulatory framework, explicitly proposing to allow both retail investors and accredited investors to purchase crypto assets, with differentiated access rules.
On July 21, 2026, the Russian State Duma passed the crypto regulatory bill. On August 4, Vladimir Putin signed Federal Law No. 282-FZ, whose main provisions came into effect on September 1.
Subsequently, the first batch of digital custodians and exchange service providers entered the market, banks and stock exchanges began preparing to launch relevant businesses, and the first batch of crypto assets eligible for retail investors was finalized.
From initially discussing restricting trading and mining, to allowing cross-border settlement, to piloting for high-net-worth investors, and finally establishing a legal trading system for retail investors, Russia's policies have undergone substantive changes.
But one question runs through the entire policy shift process: the CBR has never accepted crypto as a domestic payment tool.
In fact, as early as December 2024, CBR Governor Elvira Nabiullina stated in a public speech that the CBR supports promoting crypto cross-border settlement projects, but opposes their use for payment activities within Russia.
This attitude has remained unchanged to this day.
This means Russia's policy shift is not from full opposition to Crypto to full acceptance of Crypto, but from restricting its circulation and trading, to gradually allowing it to play a specific role within the regulated financial system.
For investors, this means gaining access to more legal trading channels; for traditional financial institutions, this is a new business market; for regulators, this means trading activities that were previously difficult to effectively oversee have the opportunity to be incorporated into the existing financial regulatory framework.
For the Crypto industry, Russia's shift has another layer of significance. It reflects that when the crypto asset market has grown to a sufficient scale and begun to intersect with real-world financial needs, simple restriction may not be the only choice regulators are willing to maintain long-term.
Of course, the implementation of laws does not mean the market is already mature. Whether Russia's new framework can attract users who previously traded on overseas platforms, whether exchanges can provide sufficient liquidity, whether strict intermediary management will affect market activity, and whether fund settlement issues under the sanction environment can be alleviated, all remain to be seen.