Russian-style crypto regulation: two payment circuits instead of one
The Russian digital assets market is entering a new era: the law "On Digital Currency and Digital Rights" signed by the president forms a unique two-circuit model of the payment system. While the whole world is feverishly seeking a balance between state control and decentralization, Moscow has chosen a path of strict segmentation: domestically — only the public circuit, beyond its borders — exclusively the private one.
The essence of the legislative maneuver
The key innovation is the separation of areas of application. Domestic settlements remain the domain of the state retail currency — the digital ruble, whose mandatory acceptance for large businesses starts on September 1. Foreign economic activity, on the contrary, legalizes the circulation of private global assets. Such an architecture does not merely separate instruments — it creates two different sets of rules, obligations, and risks for market participants.
The speed of implementation is telling: mandatory registration of crypto exchanges in the Central Bank registry will begin as early as July 1, 2027, and requirements for intermediaries — from September of the same year. This significantly outpaces European initiatives: while the EU is only designing the digital euro, and the US has legislatively banned itself from a retail CBDC until the end of 2030, Russia is already launching mandatory acceptance of the digital ruble.
New rules for market participants
The law introduces the category of "digital depositories" — organizations that will be responsible for accounting for clients' crypto assets and compensating damages in the event of unauthorized write-offs. Crypto exchangers with own funds from 15 million rubles receive legal status. For unqualified investors, a limit of 300 thousand rubles per year with one intermediary is established, along with mandatory testing.
The tax regime deserves special attention: 13% on income up to 2.4 million rubles and 15% above that amount. Importantly, the tax arises only upon sale, not upon holding assets. At the same time, the holding-period benefit applied to other types of property does not extend to digital currency.
What this means for the market
The separation of circuits is not merely a regulatory whim, but a response to external constraints. Correspondent channels have become difficult to navigate, and private assets turned out to be the only working bridge for international settlements. However, the volatility of bitcoin and ether — the only assets admitted to trading — creates independent risks for contracts with deferred payment.
The key question of the next year and a half is whether Russia will repeat the Chinese maneuver: whether it will begin accruing income on digital ruble balances or otherwise return them to the banking system. The answer will become obvious from the dynamics of the deposit base by the end of 2027. For now, the market has received long-awaited legal certainty domestically, but the external circuit remains a zone where a counterparty's willingness to accept payment is determined by its own compliance and assessment of sanctions risks.
My assessment: the two-circuit model is a pragmatic compromise, but its sustainability will depend on how flexibly the Central Bank approaches the application of requirements for intermediaries. Excessive rigidity could drive the market back into the gray zone.