Russian Crypto Law Caps Citizens at $3,800, Opens Corporate Channel

Russia's State Duma is set to finalize a cryptocurrency law that draws a hard line between two kinds of users. Draft law No. 1194918-8, which cleared its first reading 327-13 in April and was scheduled for its decisive second and third readings on July 21, legalizes digital assets for cross-border corporate settlement while capping ordinary Russians at roughly $3,800 a year in crypto purchases. The domestic ban on using crypto for payments stays in place.

The design is straightforward. Russian companies gain explicit legal authority to settle with foreign counterparties in digital assets, with no purchase limits attached. Kaplan Panesh, deputy chair of the Duma's budget committee, described the purpose when the bill passed its first reading: the channel exists so Russian firms can pay partners abroad while working around sanctions restrictions. Crypto settlement needs no correspondent bank and no SWIFT access, and the law converts a practice that has existed informally for years into licensed state infrastructure overseen by the Bank of Russia.

The retail half looks very different. A non-qualified investor, the default status for most Russians, may buy up to 300,000 rubles of crypto per year through a single licensed intermediary and transfer no more than 100,000 rubles abroad annually. Qualified investors, defined by income and asset thresholds, get 3 million rubles for purchases and 1 million for transfers, roughly $38,000 and $12,700. Everyone must pass a risk-awareness test and trade only highly liquid assets such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and USDT. Peer-to-peer trading, the channel through which most Russian crypto activity has flowed for a decade, is being phased out by July 2027.

The mechanics matter because they reveal the state's priorities. The law classifies digital currency as property rather than legal tender, and the ruble remains the only lawful means of payment inside Russia. Licensed platforms double as tax agents, collecting income tax on gains at source. Lawmakers dropped an earlier requirement that holders disclose wallet addresses, replacing it with reporting on balances and transaction volumes. They added a provision allowing certain large transfers to foreign or third-party accounts to be held for up to 48 hours.

Anatoly Aksakov, chairman of the Duma's Financial Markets Committee, confirmed the plan to adopt both remaining readings in a single day on July 21. A Duma passage sends the bill to the Federation Council, which has 14 days to approve, then to President Putin for signature within another 14. Aksakov expects the full sequence to take roughly two weeks. Main provisions take effect September 1, 2026, pushed back from an original July 1 target after coordination delays between agencies. Unlicensed platforms get until July 2027 before the licensing perimeter closes.

The logic behind the asymmetry is not hard to read. Since 2022, sanctions have severed most Russian banks from Western correspondent networks and turned dollar and euro settlement into a high-risk exercise for any counterparty touching the US financial system. Crypto rails route around those obstacles. Russian firms have been using Tether on Tron and other channels informally for years. The law does not create that activity. It legalizes and supervises what already exists.