# Putin Signs Russia's First Comprehensive Crypto Law, Licensing Exchanges and Custodians While Keeping the Payment Ban

Most provisions take effect on 1 September. From July 2027, Russians will be able to buy and sell digital assets only through intermediaries supervised by the Bank of Russia.

- Published: 2026-08-06T05:48:34.076Z
- Canonical: https://polylog.news/crypto/2026-08-06/putin-signs-russia-s-first-comprehensive-crypto-law-licensin
- Publisher: Polylog (Crypto desk)
- Section: crypto
- Sources: [Polylog editors](https://polylog.news), [Bitcoin Magazine](https://bitcoinmagazine.com/news/russia-keeps-payment-ban-in-place)

President Vladimir Putin has signed Russia's first comprehensive statute for digital assets, covering crypto exchanges, brokers, asset managers, exchange services and a new class of digital depositories, [Cointelegraph reported citing TASS](https://t.me/cointelegraph/71466). [Watcher Guru carried the same confirmation](https://t.me/WatcherGuru/14581).

Russian coverage sets out the structure. [Interfax reports](https://www.interfax.ru/russia/1107420) that the law creates five categories of regulated participants and moves storage and record-keeping into licensed digital depositories. Existing securities depositories can qualify if they meet software and information-protection requirements. Most provisions enter into force on 1 September 2026, and the requirement to transact only through licensed intermediaries applies from 1 July 2027, according to [Izvestia](https://iz.ru/2143850/2026-08-04/putin-podpisal-zakon-o-legalizatcii-kriptovaliut-v-rossii-chto-nuzhno-znat).

What the law does not do matters as much. Using crypto to pay for goods and services inside Russia remains prohibited, as [Bitcoin Magazine notes](https://bitcoinmagazine.com/news/russia-keeps-payment-ban-in-place). The state is legalising the venue and the custodian, not the currency. Access is also tiered, with rules distinguishing qualified from non-qualified investors.

The design is consistent with how Moscow has treated crypto since sanctions tightened. Trading and custody are placed inside a supervised system the central bank can monitor, while the ruble keeps its monopoly on domestic payment. Cross-border settlement, which Russian firms have used digital assets for under an experimental regime, sits outside the retail framework and remains under separate control.

## What this means

Russia is converting an unsupervised retail crypto market into licensed intermediaries the central bank can monitor, which pulls custody away from foreign exchanges and self-custody and concentrates it in domestic institutions. Russian holders lose the option of legal peer-to-peer commerce and gain a regulated venue, while domestic banks and depositories gain a protected business line. For the wider market, this is a template that non-western states are converging on: legalise the exchange, license the custodian, and keep the national currency as the only means of payment.

## What to watch

- Which institutions receive the first digital depository licences, since incumbents from the securities market would indicate that Moscow wants crypto custody inside existing state-supervised institutions.
- Whether the separate cross-border settlement regime for sanctioned trade is expanded once the domestic framework takes effect, which would show the law is a foundation for external payment rails rather than only retail supervision.
- How Russian users respond before the July 2027 intermediary requirement, in particular whether volumes shift to licensed venues or to offshore platforms.