Russia's State Duma Committee on the Financial Market has prepared a draft law to ease restrictions on cryptocurrency payments and expand permitted use cases.
Regulation & Gov ·
Russia's State Duma Committee on the Financial Market has prepared revised legislation that would expand the types of cryptocurrency transactions permitted within the country, moving toward the second reading stage of a regulatory bill. According to Interfax, the updated draft introduces permissions for using digital assets to settle purchases of securities, swap one cryptocurrency for another, and cover blockchain transfer commissions—use cases previously restricted or unclear in law.
The proposal builds on exemptions established during the first reading, which already allowed crypto in mining rewards and foreign trade payments. The revised version now specifies that securities and cryptocurrency-to-cryptocurrency transactions must occur outside public offerings, limiting them to private dealings. The framework also sets a minimum capital requirement of 15 million rubles for registered cryptocurrency exchanges operating above 3.5 million rubles in monthly turnover, with technical standards to be coordinated among the Central Bank, FSB, and relevant state agencies.
What remains undefined is whether the bill will pass second and third readings, and the practical threshold for market entry remains high—current listings criteria effectively limit initial exchange-traded cryptocurrencies to Bitcoin and Ethereum based on capitalization and trading history requirements. Stablecoins including USDT and USDC may face definitional barriers under the proposed law's classification standards.