The cryptocurrency law in Russia is postponed again: the July 1 deadline has been missed.
The Russian digital assets market has once again encountered a bureaucratic pause. The key bill No. 1194918-8 "On Digital Currency and Digital Rights," which successfully passed its first reading in the State Duma on April 21, will not be adopted by the planned deadline of July 1. This has been officially confirmed by the Ministry of Finance.
Ministry of Finance: "Everything is ready, but we won't make it in time"
On the sidelines of the PMYUF-2026 forum, Alexey Yakovlev, Director of the Financial Policy Department at the Ministry of Finance, stated that the document is essentially ready, but the procedure is dragging on. According to him, a meeting of the relevant State Duma committee will take place soon, followed by the second reading. However, it will most likely not be possible to approve the law before July 1 — the deadline is tentatively being pushed back to late summer or early autumn.
Let me remind you that the bill establishes the basic legal framework for the circulation of cryptocurrencies in the country. According to the text, individuals and legal entities will be able to officially acquire digital coins, but exclusively through certified operators. The list of authorized intermediaries will include:
- specialized exchange services from the Central Bank's registry;
- licensed brokers;
- official trust managers.
At the same time, the use of tokens to pay for goods or services within the territory of the Russian Federation remains strictly prohibited.
The market sensed the delay in advance
Information about the postponement of deadlines had been circulating in professional circles even before the official comments from the Ministry of Finance. For instance, on June 22, Sergey Mendeleev, founder of the Exved platform, noted in his blog that the discussion of the crypto initiative had been quietly removed from the work plan of the parliamentary committee, even though a meeting was scheduled for the next day.
Mendeleev believes it would be reasonable to return the text of the law to the first reading stage and entrust its revision to the new composition of deputies during the autumn session. Otherwise, the expert warns, the industry will once again face the old problems that previously arose during the legalization of mining.
Let me remind you that Sergey Mendeleev actively participated in discussions about future rules for regulating cryptocurrency in Russia and repeatedly pointed out that the authors of the bill are ignoring proposals from experienced representatives of the crypto industry.
My analysis
The delay in adopting the law is not just a technical glitch, but a symptom of a deeper problem: the lack of consensus between regulators and market participants. The Central Bank initially aimed to launch new rules from July 1 and planned to prepare by-laws during the third quarter, with the first fully legal transactions expected only in the last quarter of the year. Now these deadlines are being pushed back, and the market remains in a gray zone longer than anticipated. For investors and businesses, this means continued uncertainty, which is unlikely to encourage capital inflow into the legal sector.