Advertising crypto services in Russia: a new law, old prohibitions, and a strange transition period
From 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 fully in effect. This creates a unique and largely paradoxical situation in the market, which I have analyzed from both a legal and practical perspective.
The logic of the 2024 ban and its consequences
Until recently, the answer to the question of advertising cryptocurrencies and related services was extremely simple: it is prohibited. Since August 19, 2024, Federal Law No. 221-FZ introduced a broad ban on advertising digital currencies, as well as goods, works, and services related to organizing their circulation. The wording turned out to be so comprehensive that the effect extended far beyond the exchangers themselves.
The example of mining is telling. In the same August 2024, the state legalized this activity and created a separate regulated regime for miners. But Yandex.Direct at the same time updated its rules and banned advertising of mining, crypto exchangers, blockchain, smart contracts, ICOs, and a number of other services. A strange effect emerged: the state allowed mining, while the largest advertising platform almost simultaneously banned its promotion. Today, Yandex's rules permit advertising of equipment and cloud resources for mining, but crypto exchangers themselves and mining as an activity remain on the list of prohibited categories.
Meanwhile, the market did not worry too much about the ban during those two years. Even now, in public listings of exchangers, users are directly offered to buy and sell USDT, BTC, ETH, compare rates, and choose a service. Market participants operated as if the advertising bans did not exist.
What changes in September: the new article and the transition period
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 framework for organizing cryptocurrency circulation and defines its legal participants. The second restructures a large number of related laws, including the Law on Advertising. Both documents were officially published on August 4, 2026.
From 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. 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 have been defined, and conditions have been established for obtaining the statuses of legal crypto exchangers, 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 Law on Advertising.
Here lies the curious point. The new advertising conditions begin to apply as early as September 1, 2026, but they extend only to participants in cryptocurrency circulation from the Central Bank's 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.
My analysis of the situation
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 market finds itself in an unusual transition period. The new advertising rules already exist, but the new access infrastructure is only being launched. As of August, the Bank of Russia 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 desynchronization is evident here.
In my view, this creates a window of opportunity for unscrupulous players who may exploit the uncertainty and continue aggressively promoting their services without falling under the new restrictions. Legal market participants will need to exercise caution and wait for the full launch of the registry to avoid risks associated with advertising regulation.