The package covers exchange rules, price reporting, digital ownership records and capital requirements for specialized custodians. According to the central bank’s official announcement, the proposals are meant to support trading under Russia’s newly adopted digital-currency law.
No market opens automatically with the publication of these drafts. Exchanges, banks and custody providers still need final regulations, licences and functioning backend systems before they can serve investors.
Each approved exchange would set the rules governing its digital-asset market. It would also calculate and publish a market price and a volume-weighted average price for every admitted cryptocurrency or digital right.
Standardized pricing would give brokers, custodians and investors a common reference for valuing positions inside Russia. It could also reduce reliance on prices copied from unrelated offshore platforms, although trading quality will still depend on liquidity, spreads and the number of active participants.
Exchanges would report market information to the Bank of Russia and could suspend an asset when custody operations are blocked or material events affect the instrument. These controls bring crypto trading closer to the model already used in regulated securities markets.
Trades require more than an exchange matching buyers and sellers. Specialized providers would maintain the legal record showing which customer owns each cryptocurrency or digital right.
The blockchain may show a large balance held at an institutional address, while the custodian’s internal records divide that balance between individual clients. Account statements, transfers and ownership disputes would therefore depend partly on those books.
This model may simplify recovery procedures and compliance checks for investors who do not want to manage private keys. It also creates reliance on the provider’s cybersecurity, accounting controls and ability to match customer balances with assets held on-chain or through foreign custodians.
The draft capital regulation starts with a base requirement of approximately $640,000 for a standard custody provider.
The minimum rises to approximately $1.27 million when a company controls blockchain addresses or holds accounts with foreign digital-asset custodians. A settlement provider responsible for obligations arising from exchange trading would need $3.2 million.
The tiers reflect the risk carried by each business. Controlling wallet addresses or settling trades exposes a company to greater operational and custody losses than maintaining simpler ownership records.
Providers must also calculate their capital regularly and support it with eligible assets. The requirements may discourage lightly funded entrants and give established banks and financial groups an early advantage.
Russia already has rules for digital financial assets, or DFAs, tokenized financial claims issued under domestic law. Bitcoin and other decentralized cryptocurrencies do not fall into the same legal category.
The new law adds a regulated route for buying and selling digital currencies while expanding how Russian digital rights can circulate. Investors may eventually be able to exchange cryptocurrencies for securities or domestically issued digital instruments through approved intermediaries.
That connection does not erase the distinction. A DFA generally has an identifiable issuer and defined contractual rights, while assets such as Bitcoin have no company or state standing behind them.
The State Duma passed the wider law on digital currencies and digital rights on July 21, with the Federation Council approving it three days later. Our earlier report on Russia’s new crypto law covered the investor rules, annual purchase limits and licensing structure established by the legislation.
The law is scheduled to begin taking effect on September 1, 2026. Market participants will then have a transition period to obtain licences and bring their operations into compliance.
Legislation establishes who may enter the market. The new drafts cover the practical work of processing trades, calculating prices, recording ownership and maintaining sufficient capital.
Sber plans to have its cryptocurrency trading and custody systems ready by December 1. As explained in our report on Sber’s planned December launch, the bank is preparing both a trading service and the backend needed to record customer rights.
The latest drafts show what those systems may need to handle. Sber would have to connect trading activity with customer accounts, maintain the required financial resources and reconcile its records with assets held on public blockchains or through outside custodians.
December remains a readiness target rather than a guaranteed public launch date. Final rules, regulatory approval and customer terms covering supported assets, fees and withdrawals are still required.
The drafts do not yet identify which cryptocurrencies will qualify for regulated trading. Withdrawal rights to personal wallets, treatment of blockchain forks and airdrops, and the handling of staking rewards also remain unresolved.
Asset segregation will be particularly important. Investors need clear rules establishing whether customer cryptocurrency remains separate from a provider’s own property if the company becomes insolvent.
The same applies to custody failures. Formal ownership records can help resolve disputes, but they cannot replace missing assets if wallets are compromised or internal balances do not match on-chain holdings.
Russia’s proposed model places licensed intermediaries at every major stage. Exchanges would organize trading, custodians would record ownership and the Bank of Russia would maintain registers of approved participants.
That structure could make crypto easier to access through banks and regulated brokers while providing clearer records and standardized prices. Investors would surrender part of the direct control associated with self-custody in return for those protections.
The framework is still being assessed and may change before adoption. Its final version will determine whether Russia creates a liquid crypto market or a tightly controlled service available mainly through the country’s largest financial institutions.
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