Crypto advertising in Russia: a strange transition period between the ban and the new order
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 digital currencies themselves remains in place. This creates a unique legal conflict, which I have analyzed based on a review of new legislative acts and comments from a leading lawyer in the field of crypto regulation.
The Logic of the 2024 Ban
Until recently, the answer to the question of advertising cryptocurrencies and related services was extremely simple: it is not allowed. Federal Law No. 221-FZ of August 19, 2024, introduced a broad ban on advertising digital currencies, goods, works, and services related to organizing their circulation. The wording turned out to be so broad that its effect extended far beyond exchange offices.
The example of mining is illustrative. In the same August 2024, the state effectively legalized this activity, establishing requirements for miners and creating a separate regulated regime for them. At the same time, Yandex.Direct updated its rules and banned advertising of mining, crypto exchanges, blockchain, smart contracts, ICOs, and a number of other services. The result was a strange effect: the state had just legalized mining, while the largest advertising platform almost simultaneously banned advertising it.
Today, Yandex's rules do still allow advertising of equipment and cloud resources for mining, educational materials, events, and a number of related services. But crypto exchange offices themselves and mining as an activity remain among the prohibited categories in Russian Direct rules.
What Changes in September
Now such a regime has emerged. Federal Law No. 282-FZ of August 4, 2026, "On Digital Currencies and Digital Rights" and Federal Law No. 283-FZ of August 4, 2026, have been adopted. The first creates the regulated framework for organizing cryptocurrency circulation 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 digital currencies themselves remains in force. 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: the rules for organizing circulation are defined, and conditions for obtaining the statuses of legal crypto exchange offices, digital depositories, and other participants are established. Banning these participants from informing the market about their services, according to the expert, 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 on July 1, 2027.
Exchange offices 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.
Thus, 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 has published drafts of the 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 inconsistency is obvious here.
My conclusion: the market has received a long-awaited easing, but it is rather formal in nature. Until the Central Bank registry becomes operational, real advertising activity by legal participants will be minimal. The key question is how quickly the regulator will launch the infrastructure and how transparent the criteria for inclusion in the registry will be. This determines whether the new order becomes a stimulus for industry development or another bureaucratic barrier.