Russia opens crypto exchange applications Oct. 5; Bitcoin pending

The Bank of Russia published rules that allow crypto exchange operators and digital depositories to submit applications for entry into official registers starting Oct. 5. Each applicant still requires an individual decision from the regulator to be admitted.

The regulation makes an electronic application form available on Oct. 5 and specifies the documents and qualification criteria firms must submit. The rules cover exchange operators, digital depositories and operators of information systems used to issue digital financial rights.

Applicants must demonstrate that managers and certain officers meet prescribed qualifications before the Bank of Russia will consider register entry. The published guidance lists required materials and explains how the regulator will review applications.

Under the ordinary review process the regulator has 30 working days to decide on an exchange operator application and 60 working days for a digital depository after it receives the last required document. Those time frames are windows for a decision, not guarantees of approval or dates when customer trading may begin. The review clocks start only when the bank has a complete set of required materials.

Some existing banks, brokerage firms and participants in the financial market’s experimental regimes may use a faster notification route if they submit the necessary documents before Sept. 1, 2027. That accelerated pathway still requires the Bank of Russia to decide whether to enter the firm in the register.

The admission rules implement parts of a law that took effect on Sept. 1 and sets out trading through regulated intermediaries. The law requires investor testing and places a 300,000-ruble annual purchase limit per intermediary on non-qualified retail investors.

Which crypto assets non-qualified investors may buy will be decided separately from the Oct. 5 application process. In August the Bank of Russia published a draft directive that listed Bitcoin, Ethereum and Tether’s USDT as candidates for public exchange trading; that draft has not been finalized.

The immediate next steps are individual Bank of Russia decisions on applicants and final rulings on eligible retail assets. Admission procedures alone do not permit regulated retail trading; firms must both secure register entry and await any asset-level approvals needed for retail sales.