Central Bank's cryptocurrency limit: a legal way to bypass the 300,000 ruble restriction has been found
Russians without qualified investor status can legally increase their annual limit on cryptocurrency purchases by distributing their transactions among several licensed intermediaries. The new Bank of Russia rules, effective from August 11, do not prohibit this.
The Central Bank has set a limit of 300,000 rubles per non-qualified investor for each broker, crypto exchange, or manager. However, as my analysis shows, this threshold can be bypassed by working with several platforms simultaneously. The restriction mechanism does not object to this approach, and this opens up interesting opportunities for retail investors.
How the limit works and who it does not affect
The key point is that the annual threshold is calculated separately for each intermediary. This means that distributing purchases among different companies remains a fully legal way to increase investment volume. For the majority of the population, which falls into the category of non-qualified investors, this is the only legal path to increase exposure to digital assets.
Interestingly, the regulator itself, judging by the wording, does not see a violation in such a scheme. The limit does not apply to qualified investors—those who meet educational and professional requirements or have passed special testing. For them, the restrictions do not apply at all.
Which coins the regulator allowed
When selecting cryptocurrencies for public circulation, the Bank of Russia takes into account market capitalization, average daily trading volume, and pricing history on foreign platforms. The history must span at least five years, which immediately filters out young and illiquid projects.
As a result, only three assets were included in the list for exchange trading: Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the USDT stablecoin. This is a conservative approach, but it is understandable—the regulator seeks to minimize risks for newcomers while leaving them access to the most mature instruments.
It is telling that retail interest in digital assets is supported by returns. In July 2026, Bitcoin showed growth of 10.1%, becoming the most profitable instrument among all assets in the Central Bank's monthly review, outperforming Russian industries and foreign stocks. This gap also explains the agency's caution: the limit, along with mandatory testing, restricts potential losses for newcomers but does not close off market access to them.
My assessment: the strategy of distributing transactions among multiple intermediaries is not a gray scheme but a direct consequence of the regulatory architecture. As long as the Central Bank does not introduce aggregated position tracking across all brokers, this "workaround" will remain a working tool. However, investors should remember: the limit is protection against inexperience, not an invitation to thoughtlessly increase positions. Diversification across platforms should be accompanied by diversification of risks.