Russia set to include major cryptocurrencies in its market - Coinfea

Russian crypto exchanges will be permitted to list the largest digital coins, according to new rules approved by the executive power in Moscow. The regulations bring strict requirements regarding capitalization, trading volume, and history that can be met mainly by the likes of Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Russia is set to legalize cryptocurrencies this year, but intends to let its citizens touch only the biggest coins on the market today. The report is according to the latest version of the legislation designed to regulate crypto transactions, which has just received the nod from the Russian government. The bill “On Digital Currency and Digital Rights” empowers the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) to shortlist the digital assets that will be allowed to circulate in the country, the business news portal RBC unveiled after obtaining a copy.

Russia to greenlight state-approved digital assets for trades

The new bill introduces a set of criteria that any decentralized or foreign-issued digital currency would have to meet to be approved for trading. A key condition is that the average market capitalization of such a coin exceeds 5 trillion rubles (more than $60 billion) in the two years before its admission to the regulated Russian market.

In addition, its average daily trading volume over the same period must be at least 1 trillion rubles (a little over $12 billion at the current exchange rate). Both indicators will be verified by the monetary authority using data from global platforms licensed in their respective jurisdictions and having an average crypto trading volume of at least 100 billion rubles (around $1.2 million).

Every cryptocurrency offered in Russia must have a proven trading history, including officially published closing prices, spanning at least five years before it’s considered. The most popular coins, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana, meet these criteria, RBC noted in its report, referring to figures compiled by the leading crypto price-tracking website CoinMarketCap.

For example, SOL has been traded since 2020, has a market cap of nearly $50 billion, and a daily turnover of approximately $2.8 billion. Under the government-backed legislation, Russia’s financial intelligence service, Rosfinmonitoring, will be able to blacklist certain cryptocurrencies. The trading of such assets will be prohibited, while companies and individuals won’t be allowed to hold them. Privacy-oriented coins fall in that category.

The new bill recognizes cryptocurrencies and stablecoins as “monetary assets” and expands investor access to include not only qualified investors but ordinary Russians as well, although the annual investments of the latter will be capped at less than $4,000. While the law envisages licensing crypto platforms such as depositories and exchanges, Russia wants to use its existing financial infrastructure to process crypto transactions.

These infrastructures include banks, brokers, and traditional stock exchanges, some of which already offer crypto derivatives. The expanded legal framework now introduces financial penalties for cryptocurrency exchanges violating the regulations for digital asset circulation, which may reach 1 million rubles (over $12,000). Entities and entrepreneurs involved in mining, which became Russia’s first regulated crypto activity in 2024, will face fines, too, if they mine outside the law.