Bank of Russia sets capital thresholds for crypto custodians before September launch
Moscow's central bank has published draft capital and licensing rules for exchanges and depositories ahead of its regulated crypto market's launch.
The Bank of Russia has published draft operating rules for cryptocurrency exchanges and a newly defined class of digital asset custodians, setting minimum capital thresholds of between 50 million and 250 million roubles — roughly $600,000 to $3 million — depending on the services a firm provides. The proposals, released for regulatory impact assessment, are designed to be in place before the country’s regulated crypto market opens on 1 September.
The draft complements the federal law “On Digital Currency and Digital Rights”, which has already cleared Russia’s State Duma and now awaits approval from the Federation Council before President Vladimir Putin can sign it into force. That statute establishes the legal basis for a supervised crypto market with the central bank at its centre, according to the Bank of Russia and reporting from crypto.news.
Custody providers face tiered capital rules
The package introduces “digital depositories” as a formally defined category of institution responsible for recording cryptocurrency holdings and transactions — a role distinct from the exchanges where trading itself occurs. Firms handling open distributed ledger systems or providing post-trade settlement will be subject to different capital requirements from those offering more limited depository functions, the central bank said.
Crucially, the regulator has stipulated that the capital backing these businesses must be liquid and held in financial assets of high credit quality, a condition that mirrors prudential standards applied to traditional custodians and clearing entities elsewhere in Russia’s financial system.
Exchanges, by contrast, are being given latitude to set their own trading procedures and to independently calculate market prices and weighted average values for listed assets — an approach that leaves day-to-day market mechanics largely in the hands of individual venues, subject to the central bank’s registration regime.
Registers, accounts and retail limits
Under the proposed framework, the Bank of Russia will maintain official registers of licensed market participants, giving the regulator a single point of oversight over which exchanges, depositories and account providers are authorised to operate once the law takes effect. The draft also sets out procedures for opening and maintaining digital currency accounts that licensed participants will use within the new system.
Retail investors will continue to face limits on cryptocurrency purchases even after the framework goes live, while approved digital assets will be permitted for certain cross-border transactions — a carve-out that fits Moscow’s stated interest in using crypto rails to work around Western financial sanctions.
Both crypto.news and coincu.com confirmed the release is a draft for public and regulatory review rather than a finalised rulebook. Coincu.com noted that specific licensing, reporting and operational obligations have not yet been independently verified in full, and that no confirmed adoption date beyond the general autumn timeline has been established.
Part of a broader regulatory build-out
The exchange and depository rules follow earlier Bank of Russia proposals covering organised digital asset trading and cryptocurrency investment, extending a pattern of incremental rule-making that has run alongside the passage of the underlying digital currency law. Taken together, the measures point to a market structure in which licensed intermediaries — rather than individual retail investors — carry most of the compliance burden.
For European observers, the capital thresholds and custody segregation echo elements of the EU’s MiCA regime, even as Moscow pursues a parallel, sanctions-conscious framework of its own. The final shape of the rules, and how strictly they will be enforced from September, remains to be confirmed once the draft period closes.
Read more: Bank of Russia drafts first rules for licensed crypto trading venues
