Overview
- Russia's central bank has publicly confirmed that non‑professional investors will be allowed to buy only Bitcoin, Ethereum and Tether (USDT) when new digital currency rules take effect.
- Regulators will keep a 300,000‑ruble annual purchase cap for retail buyers to limit potential losses from crypto volatility.
- The draft law sets very high admission criteria — a two‑year average market cap above 5 trillion rubles, more than 1 trillion rubles average daily trading volume, and five years of trading history — that will exclude most tokens from retail on‑ramps.
- The measure is part of a bill that passed a first State Duma reading and still needs further readings, Federation Council approval and the president's signature before it can become law by the target July 1, 2026 date.
- If adopted, the rules will concentrate retail demand in a tiny set of liquid assets, push other crypto activity toward qualified institutional channels or offshore markets, and require buyers to pass a mandatory knowledge test with unlicensed crypto lending banned from 2027.