Russia permits public trading of BTC, ETH and USDT

The Bank of Russia has proposed opening public organized trading to Bitcoin, Ethereum and Tether’s USDT while capping purchases by non‑qualified Russian residents at ₽300,000 per broker per calendar year (about $58,000). Qualified investors would face no quantitative ceiling after passing a regulator‑administered qualification test.

Under the draft directive, only the three assets listed in the appendix — BTC, ETH and USDT — would be admitted to the public trading venue at launch. The ₽300,000 limit applies to the cumulative ruble cost of cryptocurrency purchases a client makes through a single broker during a calendar year; each broker is the unit used to measure the ceiling.

The central bank’s overview of the law places brokers and management companies alongside crypto exchanges and digital repositories in the planned market infrastructure. Exchanges would execute buying and selling of cryptocurrencies, digital repositories would record rights to the assets, and brokers and management companies would provide additional routes for investor transactions, including access to the organized trading channel described in the draft.

Qualified investors could buy and sell any cryptocurrencies through regulated intermediaries without a numerical cap once they pass the required test administered under the rules. The draft separates initial admission to the public venue — limited to BTC, ETH and USDT — from the broader asset access that qualified investors may obtain through intermediaries.

The draft directive is open for public comment until Aug. 24. The central bank may amend the asset list, the ₽300,000 cap or other provisions before issuing a final directive. The underlying cryptocurrency market law is scheduled to take effect on Sept. 1; the draft states the directive would come into force 10 days after its official publication, but the publication date and directive number remain blank while consultation continues.

The overview also describes a separate channel for cross‑border business. Exporters and importers would be allowed to use any type of wallet or cryptocurrency for international settlements, either directly or through intermediaries. That provision applies to foreign trade and international payments rather than admission to the domestic public market.