Bank of Russia Bars Direct P2P Crypto Trades From July 1, 2027

Update 12:41 UTC: Deputy Finance Minister Ivan Chebeskov has put Russian holdings of digital assets and related financial instruments at roughly 3.7 trillion rubles, about $44 billion, a figure presented as an expert estimate.

July 2027 Cutoff for Direct P2P Trades

Russia's central bank has set a hard endpoint for direct person-to-person cryptocurrency dealing: from July 1, 2027, individuals will no longer be allowed to exchange digital assets with one another without an authorized intermediary standing in between. The Bank of Russia published the clarification on Oct. 12, and the guidance posted on its website cites Article 30 of Federal Law No. 282-FZ as the legal basis for the cutoff. Until that date, direct trades between residents remain permitted; afterward, arranging the same deal through a third-party marketplace will not restore the permission, because transactions between individuals themselves no longer qualify as permitted crypto operations. Instead, residents must trade with or through organizations recognized under Russian law, namely registered exchange operators, which buy and sell digital currencies with their own funds, and brokers, who process transactions on behalf of clients. In a typical peer-to-peer trade, buyers and sellers agree on a price and settle directly, sometimes through platforms that connect counterparties without ever acting as principal. The guidance closes a second door at the same time: under Article 31 of the law, an individual may not move assets from a regulated digital account into a crypto wallet that the person controls directly. Transfers between individuals using addresses administered by regulated digital depositories are barred as well, even when the transfer follows a deal the two parties agreed themselves. These depositories record customer holdings and their associated addresses, and must hold capital of 50 million to 250 million rubles depending on the services they provide. Possession is not the target: the text does not expressly ban owning an existing software or hardware wallet, and the restriction addresses specific transfers out of regulated accounts. Investing itself remains lawful; nonqualified investors can purchase eligible cryptocurrencies worth up to 300,000 rubles per year through each authorized intermediary after passing a knowledge test, while qualified investors take the test without an annual cap. The central bank has named Bitcoin, Ether and USDT among the assets that could meet its eligibility requirements for ordinary investors.

The guidance lands on a market where the ruble-for-USDT format became the dominant route after Binance sold its Russian business to CommEX in 2023, leaving buyers to send rubles to a seller's designated Russian bank account and receive USDT in return. The central bank's update effectively shuts that mechanism down. The legal basis is Federal Law No. 282-FZ, "On Digital Currency and Digital Rights," which President Vladimir Putin signed on Aug. 4 and which took effect Sept. 1. On stablecoins, the regulator said there is no statutory definition of the asset class, while taking the view that USDT will be permitted for listing on domestic exchanges going forward.

The updated FAQ leaves three exceptions to the ban in place: transactions that fall outside the legal definition of circulation, payments under foreign trade contracts, and deals with nonresident miners or pools selling coins they themselves mined. The circulation definition targets exactly the common Russian P2P format, since it covers transfers made against bank account funds, electronic money, digital rubles or cash on domestic territory, while the text does not explicitly rule on gifts. Separately, for a coin to reach the eligible public trading list, its average market cap must have exceeded 5 trillion rubles and average daily turnover 1 trillion rubles over the past two calendar years, with a licensed foreign exchange publishing closing prices for at least five consecutive years. IStories put the current register of legal operators at 12 firms, including Sberbank and VTB.

The scale of the migration the framework can realistically capture is already in question. Deputy Finance Minister Ivan Chebeskov has put Russian holdings of digital assets and related financial instruments at roughly 3.7 trillion rubles, about $44 billion, a figure presented as an expert estimate. Anatoly Popov, a deputy chairman of Sberbank's executive board, expects only 20% of Russian trading volume to shift to licensed exchanges initially, with further movement in later years. The central bank's exchange register has since grown to 13 institutions, and brokers and exchange operators have until July 1, 2027 to obtain authorization and align with the new requirements. Analysts cited in local coverage view the design as a route to full monitoring of flows once funds sit on domestic venues.

Sberbank and VTB Take Licensed Roles

Licensed infrastructure is arriving quickly. Russia's regulated crypto market opened on Sept. 1 under the law approved in July, which placed exchange operators and custodians under central bank supervision and required the regulator to maintain registers of authorized businesses. On Oct. 6, the Bank of Russia entered its first firms into those registers, covering four exchange operators and five digital depositories. VTB Bank appears in both lists, while Sberbank, the country's largest lender, was initially cleared as a digital depository. On Oct. 12, Sberbank received separate approval to provide cryptocurrency exchange services, according to Interfax. The lender plans to introduce its first cryptocurrency products on Dec. 1, with Bitcoin, Ether and USDT among the assets expected to be supported, delivered through SberBank Online, SberInvestments and SberBusiness. VTB has outlined plans to offer digital currency trading through its investment platform as early as November, followed by its own cryptocurrency exchange in December. Registered firms must comply with transaction and accounting requirements from the date of their admission, with the remaining compliance obligations due by Sept. 1, 2027. Separate rules govern how these institutions record assets and process customer transactions, bringing banks into roles that informal markets previously filled. The framework also preserves a lane for foreign activity: under the central bank's July 21 explanation, residents can conduct cryptocurrency transactions abroad using foreign bank accounts, and assets purchased domestically may be sent overseas through regulated intermediaries, with holdings recorded abroad reportable to Russian tax authorities. Exporters and importers can use cryptocurrency for foreign trade settlements on looser terms than retail investors face. Domestic payments for goods and services inside Russia remain prohibited.

One more licensed venue is preparing to enter the market: Moscow Exchange plans to enable cryptocurrency transactions from Dec. 1, senior managing director Boris Blokhin told reporters on Oct. 8, according to Interfax. The venue is testing operations with professional market participants, and participants will open accounts with a partner settlement digital depository. Blokhin added that Moscow Exchange will not need additional permits or licenses to launch the service. By Oct. 12, the central bank's exchange register had grown to nine organizations alongside five digital depositories, per reporting citing Interfax and the register, with Sberbank among those holding exchange approval.

Enforcement Reach Outside Bank-Run Rails

Our reading is that the two clarifications together define where Russian retail crypto activity is meant to live, and it is on bank-run rails. The Oct. 12 text separates owning assets independently from withdrawing them out of regulated accounts, so a hardware wallet itself is not banned, only the withdrawal route. That distinction will be tested in practice: Jan3 CEO Samson Mow has argued that peer-to-peer trading resists crackdowns better than centralized venues, and SatoshiLabs executive Stepan Uherik has said restrictions on mobile wallet applications would not block desktop software or hardware devices. The framework leaves no DeFi-style direct route inside the licensed system, and self-custody, a core Web3 premise, now sits outside its rails. How authorities police deals settled on-chain is the question the text does not answer.