Russian Central Bank and Major Banks Promote Regulated Crypto Market Access
Russia is incorporating crypto trading, custody, and settlement into a licensed system, with the central bank and major banks advancing access simultaneously. The framework effective from September 1 requires trading to occur on licensed exchanges, brokers, asset management, and custodians, while using cryptocurrencies for domestic payments remains prohibited.
The central bank's draft proposes to set the risk limit for banks' own crypto and linked instruments at 1% of capital, with indicators for individual banks at N31 and consolidated groups at N32. This covers holdings, derivatives, loans, and bonds, with some low-risk positions able to offset, and some risk weights proposed at 1250%. The draft is planned for publication in the fourth quarter, taking effect ten days after publication, and reporting starting January 2027.
The retail channel is being narrowed. Non-qualified investors can purchase up to approximately 300,000 rubles per year through a single intermediary; the scope for qualified investors is broader. Cryptocurrencies eligible for public trading must meet a two-year average threshold: a market cap exceeding 5 trillion rubles and daily trading volume exceeding 1 trillion rubles. Unregistered entities can operate until July 1, 2027, after which they must be listed with the central bank, with a minimum capital requirement of about 15 million rubles.
The largest bank, Sberbank, plans to launch trading infrastructure and digital custody by December 1, with most transfers recorded off-chain, and wallets handling deposits and transfers. The bank has already piloted Bitcoin-linked structured products and loans secured by miners. Alfa-Bank is testing qualified investor trading in a limited scope within its brokerage application. VTB had previously proposed providing spot trading access to ultra-high-net-worth clients.
The digital ruble was opened for ordinary payments on the same day, with 12 systemically important banks required to support account opening and payments. Crypto is classified as a tradable foreign currency asset, with settlements still needing to go through licensed intermediaries. While access is being expanded, risks are locked within 1% of bank capital.
In market mechanisms, this represents a regulatory opening. Buy orders are bets on licensed Russian banks' custody, qualified investor quotas, and cross-border settlement pilots; sell orders come from unlicensed exchanges and domestic payment scenarios. Funds are shifting from over-the-counter to custody and bank brokerage. Beneficiaries are banks like Sberbank that already have licenses and clients; those under pressure are smaller coins that cannot meet liquidity thresholds and unregistered traders.
Source: Public Information
ABAB AI Insight
Russia is not liberalizing private cryptocurrency trading but is rewriting crypto as a foreign currency warehouse that banks can operate. The simultaneous introduction of the circulation law signed by Putin, the launch of the digital ruble, and the 1% capital limit indicates that the entry point is at licensed institutions, while the exit for daily payments remains closed. The central bank governor has previously mentioned using a notification system to allow banks and brokers to operate exchanges under existing licenses, based on the logic that the anti-money laundering system is already in place within banks, negating the need for a separate market.
The capital pathway follows the state banks. Sberbank has made custody an off-chain registration, meaning transactions do not need to be recorded on the public chain for each instance; VTB and Alfa are initially serving ultra-qualified clients. The legalization of mining and cross-border pilots in 2024 is intended to leave a gap for settlements under sanctions. The motivation is to confine alternatives to dollar clearing within the domestic account system while preventing bank balance sheets from being undermined by cryptocurrency prices.
In a similar position, this is closer to a foreign exchange license under capital controls rather than the opening of retail to U.S. spot ETFs. The industry phase is crypto moving from the gray market into bank products with a 1% exposure. Those who enter the central bank's registry will be the first to capture the order flow from qualified investors.
Structural changes belong to regulatory changes. Pricing power shifts from foreign exchanges to domestic licensed intermediaries and liquidity thresholds. The mechanism is: first, legislation specifies who can engage, then locks bank risks at 1% of capital, and finally uses market cap and trading volume thresholds to determine which coins appear on the counter. It opens a channel while closing the possibility of banks being overwhelmed.
ABAB News · Cognitive Law
At the moment access opens, risks are first written as 1% of capital
Banks are permitted to buy and sell, but that does not mean they are allowed to use it for payments
Licensed custody rewrites on-chain assets as foreign currency warehouses in domestic accounts