Russian banks call for relaxed cryptocurrency regulations

Russian bankers are now urging their government to soften upcoming crypto rules and admit more coins to the country’s market for digital assets.

Their call comes after lawmakers warned against the overly strict framework currently under review, suggesting regulation in line with global standards.

Russian banks push for liberal cryptocurrency law

The Association of Russian Banks (ARB) has come up with ideas on how to “liberalize” the pending bill “On Digital Currency and Digital Rights.”

The draft law is part of a legislative package meant to comprehensively regulate crypto operations in Russia which is under consideration in the State Duma.

It legalizes cryptocurrencies and platforms working with them but imposes restrictions and penalties threatening to cut off Russia from the global market.

The proposals have been sent to the Chairman of the Financial Markets Committee at the lower house of Russian parliament, Anatoly Aksakov, local media unveiled.

According to reports by RBC and Bits.media, the ARB lobbies for allowing transfers to non-custodial wallets abroad and whitelisting foreign crypto platforms.

Such transactions would be illegal under the current version of the law, which permits only sending coins to custodial wallets and via licensed domestic intermediaries.

The banks, which will be authorized to work with decentralized money, want to be able to exchange cryptocurrencies for Russian digital financial assets such as tokenized securities.

They also suggest regulating stablecoins pegged to fiat currencies or backed by other assets, which are not mentioned in the legislation right now.

Russian bankers are also pushing the country’s monetary authority to relax the standards for cryptocurrencies approved for trading in the country.

The bill admits only the largest coins by capitalization and liquidity to the Russian market, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana, as reported by Cryptopolitan.

The ARB further proposes ditching a requirement for digital depositories to disclose information about clients and their crypto holdings.

It also insists on extending judicial protection to cover crypto assets, including those that have not been disclosed to Russia’s tax authority.

Amendments can be made until the second reading of the bill, which was filed in the Duma earlier in April but has yet to hit the floor of the chamber.

Lawmakers call for easing crypto regulations

Meanwhile, the draft law was recently reviewed by the parliamentary Committee for Protection of Competition, and its members were also unhappy with its “excessive rigidity.”

The Russian deputies called for easing the rules for members of the industry, warning they would otherwise lead to monopolization of the market.

“Excessively stringent regulation compared to global regulatory practices may not achieve the bill’s goals,” the legislators remarked in their conclusion.

One of them is to bring the sector out of the shadows, but many Russians may opt to remain under the radar if the framework is adopted as is. The members of the Duma wrote:

“Instead of creating an effective and sustainable digital currency market in the Russian Federation, this could trigger an outflow of retail investors, who will be forced to choose between foreign platforms with more lenient regulations or remain in the gray zone of the domestic market, unwilling to use monopolists’ services under unfavorable terms.”

The other stated goals include introducing requirements for entities processing crypto transactions, such as exchanges and custodians.

Increasing market transparency and developing standards for provided services and investor protection are among the announced priorities, too.

The committee emphasized it has no objections to the need to achieve all this, but made it clear it’s concerned about other aspects of the legislation.

For example, it criticized the strict licensing requirements for crypto companies, including regarding capital, cybersecurity, and corporate transparency.

These will banish small and medium-sized participants from the market, leaving only large players like banks, depositories, and other financial institutions.

Under the currently proposed rules, only the latter will be able to gain full access to cryptocurrency transactions, which would allow them to monopolize the market.

This level of “centralization often leads to the disappearance of innovative startups and creates the risk of high fees,” the lawmakers warned.

They also fear “reduced quality of services and a lack of incentives for the development of new technological solutions.”

The “Digital Currency” bill must be adopted by July 1, 2026. Other acts, introducing fines and penalties for breaking the law, will be enforced a year later.

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