Crypto news

Starting September 1, 2026, advertising of services for organizing cryptocurrency circulation will be permitted in Russia for the first time in two years. However, the ban on advertising the digital currencies themselves remains in place. This creates a unique legal collision, which I analyze in this analytical material.

The logic of the 2024 ban

Until recently, the answer to the question about cryptocurrency advertising was extremely simple: it is prohibited. Since August 19, 2024, Federal Law No. 221-FZ introduced a broad ban—on advertising the digital currency itself, as well as goods, works, and services related to organizing its circulation or directly to circulation. At the same time, the ban extended to offering digital currency and related services to an unlimited circle of people.

In practice, this meant that it was impossible to write "Buy USDT at a favorable rate," "Exchange Bitcoin in 15 minutes," or advertise a crypto exchange as a place for exchanging. The wording turned out to be so broad that the effect quickly extended far beyond the exchanges themselves.

The example of mining is telling. In August 2024, the state effectively legalized this activity, established requirements for miners, and created a separate regulated regime for them. However, Yandex.Direct updated its rules during the same period and banned advertising of mining, crypto exchanges, blockchain, smart contracts, ICOs, and a number of other cryptocurrency-related services. A strange effect emerged: the state had just legalized mining, and the largest advertising platform banned its advertising almost at the same moment.

Today, Yandex's rules still allow advertising of equipment and cloud resources for mining, educational materials, events, and a number of related services. But crypto exchanges themselves and mining as an activity remain among the prohibited categories in Russian Direct rules.

Over these two years, the market has not been too upset by the advertising ban. This is clearly visible in the example of Moscow City: even now, in public listings of exchanges, users are directly offered to buy and sell USDT, BTC, ETH, compare rates, and choose a specific service. Market participants continued to operate as if there were no advertising bans.

From a legal standpoint, the 2024 ban was quite logical. At that time, Russia completely lacked regulation of organizing cryptocurrency circulation. Therefore, the state effectively prohibited advertising it until a legal regime emerged.

What changes in September

Now such a regime has emerged. Federal Law No. 282-FZ dated 04.08.2026 "On Digital Currencies and Digital Rights" and Federal Law No. 283-FZ dated 04.08.2026 were adopted. The first creates the regulated organization of cryptocurrency circulation itself and defines its legal participants. The second restructures a large number of related laws, including the Advertising Law. Both laws were officially published on August 4, 2026.

Starting September 1, 2026, the ban on advertising the digital currency itself remains in place. Advertising Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDT, or any other specific digital currency is still prohibited. You cannot make BTC the "asset of the week," offer to "buy USDT today," promise growth of a specific coin, or push a person to choose one cryptocurrency over another.

However, advertising services for organizing the circulation of digital currencies is now permitted. Unlike in 2024, the state has created a regulated framework: rules for organizing circulation are defined, and conditions for obtaining the statuses of legal crypto exchanges, digital depositories, and other participants are established. Banning these participants from informing the market about their services would look strange. A separate permitted model for this is created by the new Article 29.2 of the Advertising Law.

There is an interesting point here. The new advertising conditions begin to take effect as early as September 1, 2026, and apply only to cryptocurrency circulation participants from the Central Bank registry. At the same time, the full regime, under which only registry participants are entitled to organize circulation, is activated only from July 1, 2027.

Exchanges can operate under the old rules until that date, but the new advertising conditions do not apply to such players—they are not in the registry, which the Central Bank itself has not yet opened.

Starting September 1, the market enters an unusual transitional period. The new advertising rules already exist, but the new licensing infrastructure is only being launched. As of August, the Bank of Russia published draft procedures for maintaining registries and other necessary acts. This is not a complete legal vacuum—the law specifically provided for transitional mechanisms—but a certain regulatory desynchronization is obvious here.

My expert commentary

The crypto services market in Russia is entering a phase of legal uncertainty that could last almost a year. On one hand, legal participants gain the right to advertise, but they are not yet in the registry. On the other hand, illegal exchanges will continue to operate, but without advertising support. This creates a window of opportunity for the first players who manage to obtain status in the Central Bank registry and occupy advertising space before the full launch of the regime in July 2027. I recommend that market participants prepare their legal framework now and monitor the Central Bank's draft regulatory acts—they will determine who enters the new legal segment first.