The Central Bank of Russia will take control of misselling in cryptocurrency sales: risks will not be possible to keep silent about.
The Bank of Russia has announced the start of strict oversight of misselling practices in the sale of digital currencies and related financial instruments. The regulator intends to curb situations where a financial institution sells a client one product under the guise of another or deliberately withholds key features and risks of an asset. This statement is a signal to the market: starting September 1, when digital currencies become available to retail investors through licensed intermediaries, the quality of customer information will be under close scrutiny from day one.
What the regulator promises
Supervision of such practices will be mandatory, as regulation of the cryptocurrency market in Russia is in its initial stage. In the first phase, particular attention is paid to how diligently financial organizations disclose information about risks, not just potential returns. The filters already built into the rules—mandatory testing of buyer knowledge and limits on transaction amounts depending on the risk level—remain in force. However, as the Central Bank rightly emphasizes, these measures do not guarantee that the client will be honestly informed about the product at the time of sale. That is why the regulator adds its own monitoring of seller behavior to the formal barriers.
The Deputy Chairman of the Bank of Russia expressed hope that it would not come to the application of sanctions, but emphasized readiness to punish violations. The agency intends to very closely monitor the entire sales chain, not just formal compliance with limits and tests.
What lies behind the new rules
In August, a law was signed that for the first time comprehensively regulates the circulation of digital currencies and digital rights in Russia. The document establishes rules for the operation of crypto exchanges, digital depositories, and market participants, as well as defines the conditions for purchasing cryptocurrency for investors. The regulation covers the organization of circulation, accounting and storage of assets, mining, issuance, and turnover of digital rights. Operators of information systems, exchangers, brokers, management companies, and clearing organizations fall under supervision.
For non-qualified buyers, a limit of 300,000 rubles per year on the purchase of assets through a single intermediary has been set. At the same time, as experts note, distributing transactions among different licensed platforms remains a legal way to bypass this threshold. The industry is already voicing remarks: some believe that the Central Bank's by-laws will determine the actual strictness of the rules more than the text of the law itself, while others point to controversial provisions, such as the ban on lending digital currencies to miners and private holders of large portfolios.
My comment: This step by the Central Bank is a logical continuation of the course toward institutionalizing the crypto market. However, the key question is not how misselling will be punished, but how effectively the regulator can control real sales practices in a rapidly growing and technologically complex market. Without clear criteria for assessing the quality of information disclosure, oversight risks remaining a formality, and honest players may incur costs due to dishonest competitors.