Cryptoadvertising in Russia: a strange transitional period between the ban and the new reality
Starting September 1, 2026, advertising of services related to organizing cryptocurrency circulation will be permitted in Russia for the first time in two years. However, the ban on advertising digital currencies themselves remains fully in effect. 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: it is prohibited. Since August 19, 2024, Federal Law No. 221-FZ introduced a broad ban — on advertising 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 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 proved 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. 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 cryptocurrency-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 still 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 Direct's Russian rules.
The market has not been too concerned about the advertising ban over these two years. 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.
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 "On Digital Currencies and Digital Rights" dated 04.08.2026 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 Law on Advertising. Both laws were officially published on August 4, 2026.
Starting September 1, 2026, the ban on advertising digital currency itself remains. Advertising Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDT, or any other specific digital currency is still prohibited. It is not allowed to 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, 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 seem strange. A separate permitted model for this is created by the new Article 29.2 of the Law on Advertising.
There is also a curious point. The new advertising conditions begin to apply as early as September 1, 2026, and 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 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 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 published drafts of the procedure 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.
My analysis: This situation creates a unique window of opportunity for those players who manage to enter the Central Bank's registry at an early stage. They will gain access to legal advertising of their services, while competitors remaining outside the registry will be limited in marketing tools. This could lead to significant market consolidation in favor of regulated participants, which in the long term is likely the regulator's goal.