The Bank of Russia has proposed capping cryptocurrency purchases by non-qualified retail investors at 300,000 rubles, or roughly $3,645, per year through each individual broker, crypto exchange, or asset manager, according to the central bank's own announcement. Retail investors would be restricted to Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tether's USDT, the three assets the bank selected based on market capitalization, trading volume, and at least five years of pricing history on foreign platforms. Qualified investors face no such purchase limit and can trade any cryptocurrency available on exchange and over-the-counter markets. The proposal was published for public comment on August 11, with feedback due by August 24.
Before trading, the central bank said, all investors regardless of status will need to complete a test and review the associated risks, a requirement modeled on similar investor-protection tests Russia already uses for complex securities products.
Part of a Broader Legalization Push
The cap builds on a comprehensive crypto law passed by Russia's State Duma in July, most of which takes effect September 1. That law formally opens regulated crypto trading to both retail and institutional investors for the first time, following an experimental framework Vladimir Putin signed in August 2024 that had permitted mining and cross-border crypto payments but stopped short of legalizing domestic retail trading. Under the broader law, only registry-listed organizations will be allowed to operate crypto exchanges, with unregistered firms given until July 2027 to come into compliance, and cryptocurrencies remain banned for domestic payments outside specific foreign-trade exceptions.
Retail investors can also earn qualified status through a track record of prior crypto transactions rather than net worth alone, giving active traders a path to bypass the $3,645 cap over time rather than being permanently capped at the retail tier.
Related: SEC to Begin Its Own Crypto Rulemaking as CLARITY Act Stalls
Together, the pieces mark one of the more detailed regulatory frameworks any major economy has published for retail crypto access, trading the outright ambiguity that long defined Russia's crypto market for a tightly bounded, test-gated version of legal access.
