Russia considers relaxing crypto access rules as adoption ranking slips

Russia’s finance ministry is suggesting easing the requirements for entering the country’s restricted and strictly controlled cryptocurrency market.

The proposal to lower the thresholds for granting access to digital assets comes as the country fell to number 10 among crypto adopters.

Minfin urges letting more Russians try crypto

The Russian Ministry of Finance (Minfin) believes it is possible to relax requirements for obtaining the status of “highly qualified” investor, which is necessary to participate in the state-authorized market for crypto assets.

In March of this year, the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) proposed to allow this category to buy and sell cryptocurrencies under a special “experimental legal regime” (ELR) for trading and other operations with digital coins like Bitcoin.

To be accepted as “superquals,” as these investors are commonly called, citizens need to prove investments in securities and deposits exceeding 100 million rubles (over $1.2 million) or annual income from the past year of more than 50 million rubles (more than $600,000).

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) in the Far Eastern city of Vladivostok, the Director of the ministry’s Financial Policy Department, Alexey Yakovlev, stated:

Quoted by the Interfax news agency, the official made it clear that the Minfin’s idea is to expand the list of participants in organized crypto trading within the ELR framework. However, he did not elaborate on how much the ministry wants to see the thresholds lowered.

Yakovlev only emphasized that while the criteria should limit the potential circle of participants, on the one hand, authorities should avoid denying access to legal crypto infrastructure to a “sensitive part of the population,” on the other.

Even with few options to acquire crypto in their country, Russians are already holding over $25 billion worth of digital assets, as previously reported by Cryptopolitan.

In the light of developing permanent regulation, “proposals to reduce this limit may be considered, as I said, so that we have a more significant layer of citizens [joining the experiment] and we can test all the processes,” Yakovlev emphasized.

Bank of Russia remains opposed to crypto payments

In its recommendation to the government this past spring, the Bank of Russia also suggested allowing all qualified investors to invest in derivative financial instruments, securities and digital financial assets without direct exposure to cryptocurrencies.

The CBR allowed such investments in May, and within a month of issuing a circular authorizing financial institutions to offer crypto-based products, Russian investors bought $16 million worth of Bitcoin futures.

The monetary authority continues to oppose permitting the free circulation of decentralized digital currencies in the national economy as well as their use for payments.

The regulator has been pushing for a full ban on crypto payments outside the ELR, which allows companies to employ cryptocurrencies for cross-border settlements under sanctions.

Currently, Russian citizens are not explicitly prohibited from obtaining cryptocurrency, but in the absence of centralized local exchanges, they mostly rely on foreign platforms. In August, a group of lawmakers urged the CBR to license a network of domestic exchanges.

Meanwhile, Russia dropped to the bottom of the top 10 in the 2025 Global Adoption Index published this week by the blockchain forensics firm Chainalysis. It ranked 7th in last year’s edition.

Neighboring Ukraine, which on Wednesday made an important step toward legalizing crypto assets and regulating their market, also fell in the ranking, from 6th to 8th place.

The two former Soviet republics saw a surge in crypto usage in the years after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in early 2022, fueled by fiat restrictions in Ukraine under martial law, and sanctions in the case with Russia, severely limiting its citizens’ and companies’ access to traditional financial channels.

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