Crypto advertising in Russia: a strange transition period begins on September 1
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 an extremely unusual legal framework that requires careful analysis.
Until recently, the answer to the question of advertising cryptocurrencies and related services was extremely simple: not allowed. 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 its circulation. At the same time, the ban extended to offering digital currency and related services to an unlimited circle of people.
Why the 2024 ban was logical
In practice, this meant 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 exchange. The wording turned out to be so broad that the effect quickly extended far beyond the exchanges themselves. For example, in August 2024, the state effectively legalized mining, establishing requirements for miners and creating a separate regulated regime for them. However, Yandex.Direct at the same time updated its rules and banned advertising of mining, crypto exchanges, blockchain, smart contracts, ICOs, and a number of other related services. The result was a strange effect: the state had just legalized mining, and the largest advertising platform banned advertising it almost at the same moment.
Today, Yandex's rules do allow advertising of equipment and cloud resources for mining, educational materials, events, and a number of related services. At the same time, 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 especially evident 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.
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 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 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: rules for organizing circulation are defined, and conditions are established for obtaining the statuses of legal crypto exchanges, digital depositories, and other participants. Banning these participants from informing the market about their services, according to experts, 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 apply already on September 1, 2026, and extend only to participants in cryptocurrency circulation from the Central Bank's register. At the same time, the full regime, under which only register participants are entitled to organize circulation, is activated only on 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 register, which the Central Bank itself has not yet opened.
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 published draft procedures for maintaining registers 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 transition period creates fertile ground for legal disputes and ambiguous interpretations. Market players should already be preparing the legal basis for advertising campaigns, focusing on the requirements for register participants, even if they are not formally included in it yet. Otherwise, there is a risk of facing claims from both the Central Bank and the Federal Antimonopoly Service.