Russian residents will generally be barred from buying and selling crypto directly with one another through Russian bank accounts from July 1, 2027, under a law signed by President Vladimir Putin.
- Federal Law No. 282-FZ, signed on Aug. 4, requires residents who aren't licensed crypto intermediaries to conduct covered trades through, or directly with, companies authorized by the Bank of Russia, the country's central bank.
- That would prohibit a common form of peer-to-peer (P2P) trading in which one person sends rubles to another person's Russian bank card and receives a stablecoin or another crypto in return.
- A licensed local company would therefore have to take part in the transaction.
The law doesn't use the term P2P. But in an unofficial translation from Russian, it says residents may conduct crypto transactions only through, or directly with, organizations that arrange the circulation of cryptocurrencies.
Foreign counterparties do not create an exemption
The restriction applies to the Russian resident, even when the person on the other side of the trade is a foreigner.
The trade would still need to involve an authorized company.
But the law doesn't impose the same general restriction on transactions conducted entirely between foreigners.
It also includes limited exceptions for certain foreign-trade payments and some sales of mined cryptocurrency to nonresidents.
Banks will help enforce the restriction
The law separately defines when a person's trading becomes a crypto exchange business. Two or more trades in one month count as systematic exchange activity only when their combined value exceeds 3.5 million rubles, or about $44,000 at current rates.
Staying below that amount means a person doesn't have to register as a crypto exchange solely because of their trading volume, though it doesn't preserve ordinary direct P2P trading after the July deadline.
Licensed exchange operators must be Russian companies, hold at least 15 million rubles in capital (about $184,000), join an approved self-regulatory organization and enter the Bank of Russia's register.
- Banks will also be required to block certain payments linked to unauthorized crypto services, including some transfers involving foreign recipients or overseas payment providers.
- Pure wallet-to-wallet crypto transfers that don't involve Russian payment infrastructure or property located in Russia aren't automatically covered.
- But whether a transaction falls outside the law will depend on how payment is made and where the assets involved are located.