Russian authorities will treat cryptocurrencies and stablecoins as tradable assets, file a draft bill to the State Duma in March 2026, and target adoption during the spring session with the law set to take effect on July 1, 2026 and full liabilities and penalties phased in on July 1, 2027. The regime will require exchanges, brokers, banks, and custodians to obtain local licenses and meet requirements including qualified custody, order and trade reporting, KYC and suitability checks, segregation of client assets, and capital requirements, while limiting retail activity through eligibility and suitability rules and allowing supervised intermediaries as the only compliant onramps for Russian users. Authorities will require foreign platforms to operate through Russian subsidiaries, enforce data localization, and enable corporate and technical controls including targeted domain and app restrictions to reduce offshore fee outflows estimated at about $648 million per day and roughly $15 billion per year. Enforcement will proceed in stages, prioritize shutdowns of fraud and unauthorized intermediaries, provide transition windows for legitimate platforms to apply for licenses, and deploy Roskomnadzor AI-assisted blocking tools and escalation pathways from summer 2026 alongside prosecutorial and central bank actions that impose administrative penalties for users and criminal-style liability for firms operating outside the licensing regime. Exchanges and service providers will incur compliance and operational costs from custody standards, local servers, capital buffers, and reporting systems; foreign platforms will choose between establishing Russian subsidiaries and local infrastructure or risking loss of market access; domestic licensed intermediaries will capture onshore volume and will be subject to supervision under the licensing regime. Entrepreneurs and firms with Russian exposure should map user flows, audit custody and self-custody exposure, prepare KYC and onboarding systems, plan for data localization, evaluate custody partners that meet the custody and reporting requirements, budget for operational costs tied to capital and reporting obligations, and develop contingency plans for traffic and liquidity fragmentation; investors and builders should prepare for licensing gates, custody requirements, enhanced reporting, consider partnerships with licensed or rapidly compliant local intermediaries, define fallback plans for liquidity and market-making, and align operational timelines and capital allocation with the March–July 2026 window and the July 1, 2027 liability deadline. Key milestones to watch include the March 2026 bill filing, the spring State Duma vote, the July 1, 2026 effective date, potential first regulated domestic transactions in late 2026, and the July 1, 2027 enforcement date; signals to track include how many major foreign platforms apply for Russian subsidiaries, how quickly domestic players scale custody and compliance, and whether Roskomnadzor begins technical restrictions on offshore access in summer 2026; risks include VPN circumvention, fragmented liquidity across domestic and offshore order books, and licensing or onboarding backlogs that could sustain a grey market. 

Source: https://web3businessnews.com/crypto/russia-2026-crypto-framework/

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