Russia's two largest banks — Sberbank (110 million retail clients) and VTB (31 million clients) — are now registered by the Bank of Russia as licensed cryptocurrency exchange operators. Combined, they provide 140 million banking accounts with direct access to Bitcoin, Ethereum, and USDT trading t...
"We are against the use of cryptocurrency in domestic transactions. However, we believe we are now ready for comprehensive regulation of cryptocurrencies." — Elvira Nabiullina, Governor, Bank of Russia
Russia's two largest banks — Sberbank (110 million retail clients) and VTB (31 million clients) — are now registered by the Bank of Russia as licensed cryptocurrency exchange operators. Combined, they provide 140 million banking accounts with direct access to Bitcoin, Ethereum, and USDT trading through existing mobile and web interfaces. Sberbank began app-level testing on October 8; VTB targets a November launch via its VTB My Investments portal. Full commercial operations across both institutions are scheduled for December 1.
The registrations follow a September 1, 2026 law that created Russia's first comprehensive crypto-market licensing architecture. The Moscow Exchange (MOEX) — the country's largest securities venue with 40.1 million brokerage accounts — separately confirmed December 1 as its launch date for spot crypto trading. Testing with professional participants began in early October. Between the banks and MOEX, over 180 million account relationships will have regulated crypto access by year-end, though overlap between banking and brokerage clients reduces the unique-user count.
The scale is significant in context. Russia recorded $48 billion in retail crypto transaction volume in Q1 2026 alone, ranking third globally behind the United States and South Korea, according to TRM Labs. The Bank of Russia estimates domestic crypto holdings at $44 billion. With regulated channels replacing informal and sanctioned pathways — notably after the April 2026 collapse of Grinex, the Garantex successor that processed $16.5 billion before shutting down — the state is channeling existing demand through compliant infrastructure rather than creating new demand.
The Law on Digital Currencies and Digital Rights took effect on September 1, 2026, after being signed by President Vladimir Putin. It establishes five categories of licensed crypto-market participants: exchanges, brokers, management companies, depositories, and exchangers. The Bank of Russia is the sole licensing authority.
On October 6, the central bank published its first register of approved operators, listing five digital depository institutions and four exchange operators. Registrations are based on transitional provisions; participants have until September 1, 2027, to achieve full compliance.
The law prohibits cryptocurrency as a payment instrument within Russia's domestic economy. Ruble-denominated transactions for goods and services using crypto remain illegal. However, the same legislation explicitly legalizes cryptocurrency for settlements under foreign economic activity (FEA) contracts — a provision that has drawn scrutiny from Western regulators and sanctions enforcement bodies.
Governor Nabiullina has framed the dual approach as pragmatic: regulated access through banks and exchanges reduces retail risk, while the cross-border settlement channel addresses trade-finance needs in a sanctions-constrained environment. The Bank of Russia proposed allowing banks and brokers to obtain crypto exchange licenses through a streamlined notification process, according to Interfax.
As of October 13, nine organizations hold positions on the Bank of Russia's exchange register:
| Entity | Type | Client Base | Status | |--------|------|-------------|--------| | Sberbank | Bank / Exchange / Depository | 110M retail clients | Testing BTC, ETH, USDT in app | | VTB | Bank / Depository | 31M retail clients | November launch via My Investments | | T-Invest Lab | Exchange | Part of T-Technologies (T-Bank) | Registered | | Zefir | Exchange | N/A | Registered | | Sistema Crypto | Exchange | N/A | Registered | | Moscow Exchange | Securities exchange | 40.1M brokerage accounts | Dec 1 launch, testing underway |
Sberbank holds a dual registration — listed on both the digital depository register and the exchange register — making it the only institution currently approved for both custody and trading. Sberbank's planned customer channels include SberBank Online, SberInvestments, and SberBusiness, covering both retail and corporate segments.
VTB Deputy CEO Vitaly Sergeichuk confirmed VTB expects its own crypto exchange to launch in December, with early access through the VTB My Investments portal potentially available in November. VTB has already completed initial stablecoin transactions for corporate clients under the new framework.
Moscow Exchange confirmed its December 1 launch at the SberInvest forum on October 8, 2026. Boris Blokhin, MOEX's senior managing director for sales and business development, stated: "We will continue testing until launch. We plan to provide this cryptocurrency trading capability on December 1st, in line with the new legislation."
Blokhin noted that MOEX's existing licenses already cover cryptocurrency trading services, requiring no additional permits. The exchange will not build its own depository. Instead, participants will open accounts with a partner settlement digital depository.
MOEX handled 40.1 million brokerage accounts at last reporting. The exchange — Russia's sole venue for equities, bonds, derivatives, foreign exchange, money markets, and precious metals — operates with a market capitalization of approximately $773 billion in listed securities. Adding crypto as an asset class integrates it directly into the same infrastructure used for conventional financial products.
SPB Exchange, Russia's second-largest securities venue, also plans to launch crypto trading by year-end, though it has not confirmed a specific date.
The Bank of Russia has set a three-asset initial universe based on market capitalization, trading volume, and pricing history:
Investor restrictions depend on qualification status:
Non-Qualified Investors:
Qualified Investors:
Governor Nabiullina has defended the caps directly: the restrictions exist "to protect" non-qualified investors from volatility risk, according to her July 2026 statements. Crypto withdrawals to foreign wallets remain unrestricted for both categories.
Russia's move to regulated crypto infrastructure cannot be separated from the sanctions context. Chainalysis estimated that Russia received $376.3 billion in on-chain crypto value between July 2024 and June 2025 — the largest total in Europe for that period.
The shadow infrastructure is well-documented. A Moscow-based fintech startup called A7, backed by state-owned Promsvyazbank, developed a ruble-linked cryptocurrency called A7A5 that facilitated sanctions evasion. By January 2026, A7A5 transaction volume had topped $100 billion, according to Foreign Policy. The 2026 TRM Crypto Crime Report found approximately $70 billion in sanctions-related flows through A7A5 and its associated wallet network in 2025 alone.
The EU responded with its 21st sanctions package in July 2026, targeting 14 crypto firms including the A7 network. The United States sanctioned Grinex — the Garantex successor — which processed $16.54 billion before a $13.1 million hack in April 2026 shut it down. Grinex blamed "Western special services" for the breach.
By creating licensed, bank-supervised channels, Russia is effectively migrating crypto flows from sanctioned gray-market platforms to state-registered institutions. Whether this reduces sanctions-evasion risk or merely formalizes it through compliant-looking infrastructure remains an open question for OFAC and EU regulators.
The legislation itself is explicit: it legalizes crypto for foreign economic activity settlements. A TechTimes analysis characterized the law as turning "$70B sanctions evasion into legal infrastructure." Western policymakers face the challenge of distinguishing between legitimate regulated trading and state-sponsored circumvention operating through the same licensed entities.
The numbers suggest existing demand is substantial and largely precedes the regulatory framework:
The 300,000-ruble annual cap for non-qualified investors is modest — roughly $3,100. At 40 million MOEX accounts, even partial participation at the cap level implies single-digit billions in retail volume. The meaningful flows will likely come from qualified investors and institutional channels, where no caps apply.
Russia's crypto adoption rate stands at approximately 5.0%, according to Datawallet — below the global average. But the absolute numbers are large due to population scale, and the Q1 2026 transaction data suggests the rate is increasing.
Several structural uncertainties remain:
Settlement and Custody: MOEX will rely on partner depositories rather than building in-house custody. The durability and security of these arrangements is untested at scale. Sberbank's dual registration (exchange and depository) gives it a structural advantage.
Price Discovery: With domestic crypto payments banned and cross-border withdrawals permitted, the relationship between prices on Russian regulated venues and global spot markets is unclear. Capital controls and sanctions may create persistent premium or discount dynamics.
AML/CFT Compliance: Nabiullina has explicitly called on banks to apply their existing anti-money-laundering capabilities to crypto markets. The effectiveness of bank-level AML on pseudonymous assets operating across jurisdictions remains untested in the Russian context.
Transition Period: Registered participants have until September 1, 2027, for full compliance. From July 2027, all crypto trades must go through registered intermediaries. The 10-month transition window creates regulatory ambiguity.
Tax Treatment: The tax framework for crypto gains under the new law has not been fully articulated. Clarity on capital-gains treatment and reporting obligations will affect institutional and qualified-investor participation.
Russia's crypto-market buildout is the largest state-directed integration of cryptocurrency into a traditional financial system currently underway. The combination of major bank registrations, securities-exchange access, and explicit legislative authorization creates a regulated infrastructure serving a market that already transacts tens of billions quarterly through informal channels.
The economic logic is straightforward: demand exists, and the state prefers to tax and monitor it rather than suppress it. The September 1 law and the October registrations represent a complete reversal from the Bank of Russia's 2022 proposal to ban domestic crypto exchanges outright.
The geopolitical overlay complicates the picture. A framework that simultaneously enables retail investment protection and cross-border sanctions circumvention will test the limits of Western sanctions enforcement. For the global crypto market, 140 million new regulated account holders — even with modest per-investor caps — constitute a demand pool that did not exist in formal channels 60 days ago.