Russia proposes annual cap on retail crypto purchases
Regulation & Gov ·
Russia's central bank has floated a rule limiting non-qualified retail investors to $3,645 in cryptocurrency purchases per year, narrowing legal access to Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tether's USDT.
The proposal, detailed by the Central Bank of Russia, sets the annual ceiling at 300,000 rubles for purchases made through licensed intermediaries. The measure would apply specifically to non-qualified investors, a designation that typically covers retail participants without professional trading credentials or larger asset holdings. Under the plan, only three assets — Bitcoin, Ethereum, and USDT — would be eligible for retail trading, while other tokens, including XRP, would remain outside the approved list.
The cap follows an earlier decision by the central bank to authorize retail trading in the same three assets while explicitly excluding XRP and other cryptocurrencies, a move Decrypt reported as part of the same regulatory push. Taken together, the approval and the purchase limit signal a controlled-access model: retail investors gain a narrow, legal channel into crypto markets, but one bounded by both asset selection and transaction volume. Coverage of the proposal has also circulated through WuBlockchain, reflecting broader attention to the restriction beyond domestic Russian channels.
The rules would affect purchases made through intermediaries rather than crypto acquired through other means, though the material does not specify how the cap would be enforced or whether informal or peer-to-peer transactions fall outside its scope. Because USDT is included among the approved assets, the restriction also touches the stablecoin ecosystem tied to Tether, which has faced separate regulatory pressure in other jurisdictions, including a compliance timeline under the GENIUS Act ahead of full enforcement in July 2028.
At least four distinct sources have covered elements of this cluster, spanning the initial asset approval, the exclusion of XRP, and the newly proposed purchase cap, indicating the measure is drawing sustained attention rather than a single isolated report. What remains unresolved is whether the 300,000-ruble limit will be formally adopted, when it might take effect, and how qualified-investor status will be defined or verified in practice. Also unclear is whether additional assets could later be added to or removed from the approved list, and how the cap would interact with existing bank restrictions on retail cryptocurrency access already in place in Russia.