Advertising crypto services in Russia: a strange transition period and new rules of the game
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 and, frankly, strange situation in the market, which I will analyze from a professional perspective.
Why the 2024 ban was logical
Until recently, the answer to the question about advertising cryptocurrencies and related services was extremely simple: it is 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.
In practice, this meant that 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 exchanging. The wording turned out to be so broad that the effect quickly went far beyond the exchanges themselves.
The example of mining is telling. 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 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 do 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 upset by 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.
What changes in September
Now such a regime has appeared. 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 Law on Advertising. Both laws were officially published on August 4, 2026.
From 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: the 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 would, in my opinion, look strange. A separate permitted model for this is created by the new Article 29.2 of the Law on Advertising.
There is a curious point here. The new advertising conditions begin to apply already from 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 from 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.
From September 1, the market enters an unusual transitional period. The new advertising rules already exist, but the new access infrastructure is only being launched. As of August, the Bank of Russia has 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 conclusion: the market will face a period of uncertainty when legal players can advertise services, while "gray" exchanges will continue to operate without new restrictions. This will create unequal competitive conditions and will likely lead to the growth of gray schemes. I recommend that market participants closely monitor the Central Bank's drafts and prepare to work in the new legal field in advance.