Russia's Central Bank released draft regulations for a domestic cryptocurrency market.
Regulation & Gov ·
Russia's Central Bank has drafted initial regulations for launching a domestic cryptocurrency market. The framework establishes rules for organized trading in digital currencies and digital rights, with exchanges setting trading conditions and calculating market prices for these instruments. The regulator has also defined requirements for digital depositories—new market participants that will maintain records of cryptocurrencies and digital rights—mandating minimum capital ranging from 50 million to 250 million rubles depending on their operational scope, including whether they work with distributed ledgers or settle trading transactions.
The draft regulations address capital requirements for digital depositories and electronic platform operators, specifying that assets backing minimum capital must be liquid and possess high credit quality. The rules cover record-keeping standards for digital currencies and rights, depository account holder information, system access recipients, and procedures for opening and maintaining digital accounts—mirroring how securities depositories currently operate. The Central Bank will maintain a registry of digital depositories.
The regulator has published all draft regulatory acts for regulatory impact assessment, though the material does not specify a timeline for finalization or implementation of these rules.