Russia is advancing sweeping cryptocurrency oversight legislation that will grant its financial intelligence agency, Rosfinmonitoring, real-time access to data on digital asset transactions exceeding 60,000 rubles (approximately $780). This marks a significant tightening from the previous 100,000-ruble threshold, as revealed in a draft law accompanying the government’s core cryptocurrency bill.
Under the new rules, all crypto transactions above the 60,000-ruble limit will require mandatory reporting of full KYC data: the real names of both parties, wallet addresses, physical addresses, dates of birth, and tax identification numbers. Transfers below this threshold will only require a client’s name and wallet ID. For foreign trade-related transactions, the reporting threshold is set at 1,000,000 rubles.
According to Deputy Finance Minister Ivan Chebeskov, around 20 million Russians use cryptocurrencies in various ways, and daily crypto operations in the country average 50 billion rubles (around $648 million). The legislation aims to bring this massive volume under strict surveillance.
The reform also imposes banking restrictions: commercial banks will be limited to holding crypto assets on their balance sheets at a maximum of 1% of their regulatory capital, with extra capital provisions required to mitigate volatility risks. The Bank of Russia will have the power to suspend or restrict crypto dealings by banks if it deems them a threat to financial stability.
Notably, the legal circulation of foreign tokens in Russia will depend on meeting daunting criteria—an average market capitalization above 5 trillion rubles and daily trading volumes above 1 trillion rubles over two years. As of now, only Bitcoin and Ether satisfy these requirements, effectively excluding stablecoins like USDT and USDC due to the absence of an obligated issuer under local law.
In a concession, lawmakers discarded an earlier requirement that would have forced citizens to publicly reveal private wallet addresses. The State Duma and the Bank of Russia intend to complete the legislative process swiftly, with a target enforcement date of September 1, 2026.
