Russia's New Crypto Law Legalizes Trading but Keeps the Merchant Payments Ban in Place

The Pokeriomokykla editorial team, writing as observers of the online-poker community, notes a consequence that goes largely unreported in the broader coverage of Russia's new digital asset legislation.

Online poker rooms fall squarely within the merchant categories now legally barred from accepting crypto under the law, closing off a funding channel that players in more permissive jurisdictions use routinely to top up their accounts without touching bank rails. Pokerio Mokykla SI breaks down the strategy behind the same games those players are funding, standing as an external reference point for anyone who wants to understand what is actually at stake at those tables.

Putin Signs Russia's First Comprehensive Crypto Framework

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the country's first comprehensive crypto law on Tuesday, according to Decrypt, which cited state news agency TASS. The legislation sets rules for how crypto is issued, stored, accounted for, and traded, bringing exchanges, digital depositories, brokers, and clearing houses under a single regulatory framework for the first time.

What the law does not do is expand where crypto can be spent. The existing ban on using crypto and digital rights as payment for goods and services to merchants is maintained in full. That prohibition extends to advertising as well: the law blocks promotional materials that pitch crypto payments, closing a channel that operators might otherwise use to test consumer-facing adoption.

The legislation is best read as a complement to earlier action rather than a standalone event. Russia legalized cryptocurrency mining in 2024, when Putin signed a separate bill. That earlier law left the trading and custody side unaddressed. The new framework fills that gap directly, building a supervised on-ramp for Russian investors while keeping the payments wall intact.

A Tightly Supervised Registry Governs Who Can Run an Exchange

Operating a crypto exchange in Russia now requires placement on a special government registry. Firms already running such operations have until July 1, 2027, to complete registration, giving existing operators a defined grace period rather than an immediate shutdown deadline.

The capital and membership requirements are specific. Registered exchanges must hold at least 15 million rubles, roughly $187,000, of their own capital, and must join a self-regulatory body operating in the financial market. Both conditions apply from the point of registration.

The law also draws a line between casual trading activity and full exchange status. A firm crosses into regular exchange classification once it trades more than 3.5 million rubles in a single month. Banks and branches of foreign lenders carry enforcement obligations on the back end: they must reject transfers they have reason to believe are being routed through an unregistered provider. That bank-level gatekeeping makes unregistered activity harder to sustain quietly.

Retail Investors Face Purchase Caps and a Mandatory Knowledge Test

Non-accredited investors may purchase the most liquid cryptocurrencies through licensed intermediaries, though the specific list of eligible assets has not yet been disclosed. Their annual purchases are capped at 300,000 rubles per intermediary. The ceiling applies per provider, meaning the rule constrains retail exposure without requiring a single centralized check.

Both retail and qualified investors must pass a knowledge test before they can buy. Qualified investors face no annual purchase cap once they clear that requirement. The distinction preserves access for sophisticated participants while imposing a meaningful procedural gate on everyone else.

One protection extends across both categories. The law guarantees court access for crypto owners regardless of whether they declared those assets before the legislation passed. Holders who operated in a legal gray zone are not penalized for prior non-disclosure; their ownership rights are recognized and enforceable going forward.

Most of the law's retail-facing provisions take effect September 1.

Sanctions Carve-Outs Signal Where State Interests Diverge from Holder Interests

The law is not uniformly restrictive. Three categories of crypto use are explicitly permitted: settlements under foreign trade contracts between residents and nonresidents, deals involving mined coins, and payments made inside digital asset platforms. Those carve-outs reflect state priorities as much as any liberalizing impulse.

Western regulators are likely to scrutinize the foreign trade and mining provisions closely. Russia has faced sustained pressure to limit its use of crypto for cross-border commerce under sanctions, and the explicit legalization of those transaction types gives the practice a formal domestic legal footing. What was previously tolerated informally is now codified.

The digital ruble adds a parallel dimension. The central bank has indicated that banks must support the digital ruble framework by September 1, the same date that most of the new law's provisions activate. The two timelines running together are not incidental. The supervised crypto trading market and the state-issued digital currency are being stood up simultaneously, with the payment ban ensuring that private crypto does not crowd out the instrument the state controls directly.

September 1 is the date when the framework becomes operational rather than prospective. The law is signed, the deadlines are set, and the architecture is built to keep trading supervised and spending, outside a narrow set of carve-outs, off the table.