Advertising crypto services in Russia: a strange transition period until 2027
Starting September 1, 2026, Russia will for the first time in two years allow advertising of services related to organizing cryptocurrency circulation. However, the ban on advertising the digital currencies themselves remains in place. This creates a unique legal collision that will last until mid-2027.
Until recently, the answer to the question of advertising cryptocurrencies and related services was extremely simple: it is prohibited. Federal Law No. 221-FZ of August 19, 2024, 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 its 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 one could not write "Buy USDT at a favorable rate," "Exchange Bitcoin in 15 minutes," or advertise a crypto exchanger as a place for exchange. The wording turned out to be so broad that the effect quickly extended far beyond the exchangers themselves.
Why the 2024 ban was logical
According to Andrey Tugarin, Managing Partner at GMT Legal, the example of mining is indicative. In the same August 2024, the state effectively legalized this activity, established requirements for miners, and created a separate regulated regime for them. At the same time, Yandex.Direct updated its rules and banned advertising of mining, crypto exchangers, blockchain, smart contracts, ICOs, and a number of other cryptocurrency-related services. The result was a strange effect: the state had just legalized mining, and the largest advertising platform almost simultaneously banned advertising it.
Today, Yandex's rules still allow advertising of equipment and cloud resources for mining, educational materials, events, and a number of related services. At the same time, crypto exchangers themselves and mining as an activity remain among the prohibited categories in Russian Direct rules.
Tugarin notes that the market has not been too upset about the advertising ban over these two years. This is especially evident in the example of Moscow City: even now, in public listings of exchangers, 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.
"If we set aside emotions, the 2024 ban was quite logical from a legal standpoint. At that time, Russia completely lacked regulation of organizing cryptocurrency circulation. Therefore, the state effectively prohibited advertising this until a legal regime emerged," the expert notes.
What changes in September
Now such a regime has emerged. Federal Law No. 282-FZ of 04.08.2026 "On Digital Currencies and Digital Rights" and Federal Law No. 283-FZ of 04.08.2026 have been 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.
As Tugarin explained, starting September 1, 2026, the ban on advertising the digital currency itself remains in effect. Advertising Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDT, or any other specific digital currency is still prohibited. One 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 have been defined, conditions for obtaining the statuses of legal crypto exchangers, digital depositories, and other participants have been established. Banning these participants from informing the market about their services, in the expert's opinion, would look strange. A separate permitted model for this is created by the new Article 29.2 of the Advertising Law.
Tugarin emphasized that there is also an interesting point. The new advertising conditions begin to apply as early as September 1, 2026, and extend 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.
"Exchangers 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," the lawyer concludes.
Tugarin emphasizes that starting September 1, the market enters an unusual transition 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 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 view: This legal structure resembles an attempt to both legalize the market and not give it too much freedom. The transition period until July 2027 will be a time of fierce competition between "gray" exchangers that will continue to operate outside the registry and "white" players that will gain access to advertising. In the short term, this will create confusion for advertisers and platforms, but in the long term, it will inevitably lead to market consolidation around regulated participants.