Russia preps penalties for illegal crypto operations amid calls for expedited legalization

Russia’s monetary authority is behind a new proposal to punish those conducting unregulated operations with cryptocurrencies in the country.

The news coincides with a call for accelerated adoption of regulations legalizing transactions with digital assets issued by a major Russian bank.

The authorities in Moscow intend to approve the respective legislation by the summer, with some analysts predicting Russia will then block foreign exchanges.

Bank of Russia suggests measures to prevent unauthorized crypto activities

The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) considers it necessary to prosecute cryptocurrency operations carried out outside the legal framework.

Governor Elvira Nabiullina made that clear in statements on the matter, quoted by Russian media and local crypto news outlets on Wednesday.

Speaking during a forum devoted to financial cybersecurity, the head of the regulator highlighted the main motive for this stance:

“Such changes are currently being prepared. We have made our proposals and are discussing them with the government,” the CBR Chair added, according to a report by the official TASS news agency.

Russians who sell cryptocurrency are often blacklisted with their bank transactions suspended, Nabiullina also pointed out.

The reason is simple – the money they receive in exchange is sometimes stemming from fraud and theft committed by scammers, she explained.

“Essentially, these cryptocurrency sellers become unwitting participants in fraudulent schemes,” the head of the monetary authority elaborated.

In less than three months, more than 1,800 such persons have contacted Russian law enforcement agencies with requests to have their access to banking services restored, Rossiyskaya Gazeta revealed on Thursday.

Many among them were people who sold crypto and found themselves added to a state-maintained database for suspicious transactions, the government-issued newspaper noted in report from the same “Cybersecurity in Finance” event held in the city of Yekaterinburg.

Leading Russian bank urges speedy cryptocurrency legalization

Meanwhile, the head of Russia’s second-largest bank used his participation in the conference to call on authorities to speed up the legalization of crypto transactions, particularly payments.

According to Andrey Kostin, CEO of VTB, formerly Vneshtorgbank, a significant number of clients, including major exporters, are now asking for payment options using cryptocurrency.

The chief executive of the majority state-owned institution emphasized this is unavoidable, suggesting regulations must be introduced as quickly as possible, as per a report by the Gazeta[.]ru portal.

The sanctioned Russian bank is among those that plan to enter the crypto market once it’s regulated. Last year, it announced plans to launch crypto trading via brokerage accounts.

Using decentralized digital money for international settlements has been a key driver behind Russia’s turn towards crypto legalization in 2026.

In October, the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank agreed to legalize cryptocurrency payments in foreign trade to help Russian firms bypass fiat restrictions imposed by the West over the war in Ukraine.

Moscow now wants to replace an “experimental legal regime” for such transactions with a full-fledged legal framework for crypto activities, including investment and trading.

It will be based on the new regulatory concept proposed by the CBR in late December, which envisages recognizing cryptocurrencies and stablecoins as “monetary assets,” as reported by Cryptopolitan.

At the forum in Yekaterinburg, the Chairman of the parliamentary Financial Markets Committee Anatoly Aksakov also urged to quickly put the crypto market in order. He stated:

Meanwhile, industry watchers warned that Russian regulators may cut access to global crypto trading platforms as soon as the country regulates its own market.

Interviewed by the business news outlet RBC this week, they believe that established foreign exchanges like Bybit or OKX may be blocked by the end of the year.

Nikita Zuborev, senior analyst at the crypto exchange aggregator Bestchange[.]ru, expects this to happen after Russia starts licensing domestic crypto service providers.