A year ago, Putin signed a cryptocurrency law. How the market has changed
2025-08-08 13:47
Exactly one year ago, on August 8, 2024, President Vladimir Putin signed a law introducing cryptocurrency digital asset mining into Russia's legal framework. Simultaneously, another law was passed on experimental cryptocurrency settlements in foreign trade.
In his RBC-Crypto’s op-ed, Oleg Ogienko, an expert in blockchain, energy and digital assets, discusses how the Russian crypto market has changed by mid-2025.
Following the adoption of comprehensive crypto industry regulation in 2024, the Russian financial market is on the threshold of large-scale modernization and the expanded use of cross-cutting technologies. The introduction of a digital ruble is planned, the securities market may transition to blockchain through mass tokenization, and instruments linked to Russian and foreign crypto products have emerged and are being developed. Furthermore, the first regulatory sandbox is underway, with subsequent start of a second one, a more widespread regulatory sandbox with a larger number of participants.
In this environment, it's interesting to see what's happening now in each segment of the Russian crypto space.
Cryptocurrency circulation
Cryptocurrency trading is de jure nonexistent in Russia, and advertising crypto trading is prohibited by law. However, Russians use existing crypto trading platforms with Russian origins, which serve more as bulletin boards and aggregators of information on digital currency prices, transactions, and counterparties. They also have features of decentralized crypto exchanges. For example, they typically lack the ability to open a wallet directly on the exchange or platform's infrastructure. Nevertheless, Russian crypto exchanges currently operating outside the regulatory sandbox could, under certain conditions, become prototypes for future official digital trading platforms for cryptocurrencies, once regulators and market participants are ready.
Many Russians use foreign crypto platforms: centralized and decentralized crypto exchanges, peer-to-peer platforms, and staking platforms. The volume of cryptocurrency trading by Russian citizens and legal entities on Russian de facto exchanges and foreign platforms is estimated at several trillion rubles in the second half of last year and the first half of this year.
Currently, one of the main problems facing the Russian cryptocurrency market is the lack of legal regulations allowing Russian citizens to conduct transactions with their cryptocurrencies in our country. This creates risks and real cases of fraud and unfair practices.
At the same time there is the first regulatory sandbox in the field of digital innovation in the financial market for cross-border settlements in cryptocurrency, established by law and managed by the Bank of Russia. Given its closed nature, it can only be said that it is a three-year experiment that, under certain conditions, could be transformed into full-fledged legislation.
The second regulatory sandbox, according to regulators, should open up superqualified investors' access to cryptocurrency-related physically-settled instruments, that is, officially allow them to directly conduct trading and investment operations with cryptocurrency within certain limits.
Exchange-traded products and digital financial assets
Non physically-settled instruments indirectly linked to cryptocurrency prices and available only to qualified investors have already been launched and are being developed in Russian securities markets and in the over-the-counter (OTC) market.
Futures contracts on shares of the US investment fund iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF are traded on the Moscow Exchange, with a total trading volume of approximately 24.7 billion rubles since its launch through July 29. Sberbank's CIB-CO-545 structured bonds, linked to the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF and the US dollar, are worth 500 million rubles. At the end of May of this year, digital financial assets with a short maturity and issue volume were issued on the infrastructure of T-Bank and Alfa-Bank, pegged to Bitcoin, as well as to US spot exchange-traded funds for Bitcoin and Ethereum - the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF and the iShares Ethereum Trust ETF. Additionally, “Silovye Sistemy” (“Power Systems”) and Finam Management launched a closed-end mutual investment fund, Finam — Crypto factory 1.0, with a fund size of over 850 million rubles and a five-year term.
The total trading and transaction volume of these instruments during their existence did not exceed 26 billion rubles. These figures are small compared to the Russian market, but they signal that cryptoassets are becoming a legitimate investment vehicle.
It is known that a number of banking, exchange, and investment structures are preparing to launch other instruments with exposure to cryptocurrencies in the near future.
Interesting trends are also being observed in the digital financial asset sector, which in Russia effectively serves as a bridge between the crypto and traditional financial worlds. Such assets should help kick-start the mass tokenization of traditional securities issued by Russian issuers, meaning the transition of trading to an open blockchain. This is hampered by the lack of interoperability between the numerous platforms, as well as their compatibility with international cryptocurrency platforms; the operation of Russian digital financial assets on closed blockchains; and tax restrictions that make these instruments less advantageous than traditional securities.
Another feature of Russian digital financial assets is their attempt to allow foreign digital rights, or, in fact, foreign stablecoins, into their information systems. These are separate types of cryptocurrencies tightly pegged to fiat currency exchange rates, precious metals prices, and backed by trusted stable assets. While foreign stablecoins are not yet directly traded in Russian, so-called wrapped instruments are being developed. Given the severe restrictions on crypto trading, this is already a step forward. However, for their widespread adoption and the emergence of liquidity in this market, numerous regulatory and technological changes are still required. Ultimately, this could lead to the transformation of Russian digital financial assets into some kind of open blockchain instrument.
Stablecoins pegged to Russian Rubles
Another trend that is only just beginning to emerge is the issuance of Russian and foreign stablecoins pegged to the Russian ruble, backed by the Russian national currency or government debt instruments. There are already precedents, and new issues are being developed. However, currently, especially in the sanctions environment, they are overcoming enormous regulatory and technological challenges.
Meanwhile, the success of Russian payment stablecoins depends largely on the market strength, stability, and convertibility of the underlying asset—the Russian national currency. If the Russian ruble is not in demand in international trade, the fate of such stablecoins will be doomed to fail. For their success and liquidity, it is essential that foreign counterparties actually pay for the majority of Russian products, goods, work, and services in rubles and accumulate Russian currency, rather than simply transferring their national currency, dollars, and euros to intermediaries for conversion into rubles and transferring these rubles to Russian exporters.
It's impossible to create successful stablecoins on the blockchain based on the unstable ruble.
Therefore, now that the ruble has gained a certain strength and power, the time is right to ensure its further development and strengthening, stabilization, and convertibility. Russia's foreign trade partners will then be much more willing to use it in their transactions. And Russian exporters and importers will offset their potential losses from the ruble's appreciation through direct settlements in rubles and Russian stablecoins with foreign counterparties and through a greater presence of their goods, works, and services in foreign markets.
To sum it up, it's worth noting that there's currently significant potential for regulating Russian crypto trading, allowing for controlled market growth without jeopardizing financial stability. Currently, there are up to four to five Russian entities capable of becoming competitive, official operators of exchange trading in digital currencies and their derivatives, should financial regulators so decide.
Blockchain transactions analytic services
In the next two to three years, Russian companies in this subsector could see tenfold growth. There are numerous international blockchain transaction research services and the companies that created them. For example, Chainalysis, Elliptic, CipherTrace, Crystal Blockchain, TRM Labs, and Arkham Intelligence have already proven their viability and market demand. However, for obvious reasons, they cannot be fully utilized in Russia.
This is where state’s blockchain analytics companies come to the fore. The most effective and advanced of them can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Illegal foreign economic restrictions against our country have only given these companies a boost. These Russian companies are currently enjoying growing demand among all crypto industry players, as well as regulators. This demand will only continue to grow.
Currently, state’s providers of these solutions should take advantage of the high demand by strengthening their IT infrastructure, integrating additional services, developing their human resources, and actively pursuing innovation. This will make their services highly competitive in the international market.
Blockchain developers
Despite existing applications of blockchain-based solutions in this segment, Russian companies have enormous scope for development and accelerated growth. Until the second half of 2024, blockchain developments in Russia were primarily rewarded financially and technologically when applied in government-trusted environments or in traditional finance and economics (digital ruble, electronic voting, bank loan issuance, accelerated interbank transfers, cargo tracking in logistics, charitable donations, and real estate registration).
The cryptocurrency industry, a sector that was unregulated until recently in Russia, provided fuel for local developers of distributed ledger technologies only on a very limited scale. It was thanks to this industry that Russian blockchains and related solutions were created, the first native tokens emerged, and local crypto exchanges and other platforms emerged, all of which still operate in a gray area. In this environment, large-scale investment in the development of Russian distributed ledger technology infrastructure and, consequently, the growth of the developers' capitalization were largely constrained.
Exponential growth is now becoming possible for country’s companies conducting such developments, despite any illegal foreign economic restrictions, and in some ways even thanks to them.
Russian blockchain and solutions based on it are in demand in literally every segment of the crypto industry: from digital trading platforms to the issuance of proprietary tokens, all kinds of trading mechanisms, and AML services.
Russian blockchain solutions using artificial intelligence technologies are worth special mention—from services for analyzing promising crypto projects to tools for intelligent exchange trading.
The Russian blockchain development landscape currently relies on no more than five pioneers. Many more are needed! Now is the perfect time to invest in this industry.
Digital asset mining
According to updated data from regulators and experts, the entire digital asset mining market in Russia as of the end of July 2025 is estimated at 3.7–3.8 GW of consumed electrical power, and up to 170 exahashes per second (Eh/s) in computing power. This figure includes a significant “gray” market for digital asset mining workloads, which are not registered and do not contribute to the economic value of the regions or the country as a whole.
In Russia, the share of registered digital asset mining equipment owned directly by its owners is low—no more than 15% of the capacity of registered digital asset mining infrastructure operators, if measured in megawatts. This suggests that a very small share of miners with their own computing equipment located in Russian data centers have emerged from the shadow economy. A balanced amnesty for digital asset mining equipment imported through illegal and unregulated schemes, coupled with other government measures, could change the situation.
The Russian mining industry consists of approximately 15 major players with production capacities ranging from 15 to 350 MW, along with many smaller ones. Some companies for whom digital asset mining is not their core business already occupy and continue to expand a certain share of the industrial digital asset mining market in Russia. According to my expert estimates, digital asset mining data centers powered by associated petroleum gas account for up to 300 MW of total load, and the number of such facilities is growing. In the next five to seven years, the Russian industrial digital asset mining market is capable of growing to 10 GW of operational data centers.
Competition for customers, available electrical capacity, and trained personnel has intensified in the state’s digital asset mining sector. In this environment, the most prepared and resourceful companies will prevail. We are already seeing, and will soon see, even more mergers and acquisitions in this business.
The digital asset mining industry in Russia has the potential to become a true source of breakthrough innovation, a highly attractive investment opportunity, and a driver for the entire Russian crypto market. To achieve this, we have much work to do both in the regulatory and business arenas.