The Bank of Russia has clarified that residents who are not market intermediaries will no longer be able to conduct cryptocurrency transactions directly with one another from 1 July 2027. Official FAQs updated on 12 October explain the implementation of existing legislation, alongside guidance on stablecoins.
The regulator says residents who are not themselves market intermediaries will have to transact through or with authorised participants under the statutory framework. It distinguishes licensed brokers from currency-exchange organisations entered in its register. The FAQ says direct person-to-person transactions remain possible only before that July deadline.
A separate answer says foreign stablecoins fall within the framework whether classified as digital currencies or foreign digital instruments. The page still marks Directive 7441-U as awaiting Ministry of Justice registration and potentially subject to revision.
Trading limits await commencement
That directive, dated 11 September, sets out the trading conditions behind the regulator's explanation. Its text specifies a 300,000-rouble ceiling on the aggregate acquisition cost of digital currencies bought or being bought through a broker for a resident who is not a qualified investor during a calendar year.
The calculation uses acquisition costs expressed in roubles through the relevant broker. The document names Bitcoin and Ether in its list for public circulation on organised trading venues. A separate clause identifies USD Tether, or USDT, as an eligible foreign digital instrument. These are regulatory classifications, rather than assessments of returns or safety.
It also defines how market capitalisation and trading volumes are calculated from foreign trading-venue data. Capitalisation uses the closing price and circulating quantity for a trading day; average daily volume is the arithmetic mean of volumes across trading days. The directive says it takes effect 10 days after official publication. Its date of signature therefore should not be read as the start of these provisions. The document also extends the stated cost and volume rules to foreign digital instruments.
The official exchange register, dated 14 October at midnight Moscow time, contains 11 active organisations. Sberbank's entry records 12 October as the date its exchange-activity right arose. Its separate regulator profile records digital-depository status from 6 October. ASPK, with a 13 October entry, is the latest addition shown in the exchange register.
The two activities have different functions. In its 6 October announcement admitting the first participants, the central bank said digital depositories could record and transfer digital currencies and rights and provide access to the addresses holding them. Currency exchangers could buy and sell in their own name and for their own account outside organised trading.
The initial announcement covered five depositories and four exchangers admitted under transitional provisions of the law effective from 1 September. It required transaction and record-keeping rules to be observed from admission, with activities brought into conformity with the legislation by 1 September 2027. Register entries establish regulatory status; they do not specify a consumer product's launch date or its availability.
Internal controls under consultation
Alongside market admission, the Bank of Russia is consulting on revised internal-control requirements against money laundering, terrorist financing and financing of extremist activity. Its explanatory note sets the consultation period from 8 to 21 October, inclusive. It expressly addresses digital depositories and currency exchangers as new participants, alongside existing financial businesses. The proposal would replace the regulator's existing 2014 internal-control regulation.
The draft would require procedures for detecting missing information about parties to digital-currency and digital-rights transactions. It sets out responsibilities for considering rejection of an incoming transfer or refusing further operations when required information is absent or incomplete. Its scope includes registered depositories and digital-asset information-system operators, with specified provisions also covering licensed brokers.
Other provisions cover refusal or termination of digital-accounting contracts, keeping reasons and dates on record, and handling challenges to refusals. The text proposes a three-month period after commencement for firms to align their internal-control arrangements. This remains a consultation: the explanatory note says the regulation also requires agreement with Rosfinmonitoring.
Dalimss News has separately reported on the UK's crypto-authorisation timetable and the US SEC's crypto-custody proposal. Those proceedings concern their respective jurisdictions and do not determine the Russian timetable.
