Russian Duma Panel Rejects Looser Crypto Bill Amendments

According to TechFlow, citing Bits.media, on July 17 Russia’s State Duma Committee on Financial Markets recommended rejecting several amendments that would have softened a government cryptocurrency regulation bill ahead of its second reading. The bill’s next review, originally expected before July 1, has now been delayed until September 1.

The rejected amendments covered several core access and compliance issues. One proposal would have raised the annual cap for non-professional investors buying crypto through a single intermediary to 600,000 rubles from 300,000 rubles. Another would have broadened the range of tradable tokens to assets with a market capitalization above 1 trillion rubles and average daily trading volume above 100 billion rubles. The current draft sets much higher thresholds of at least 5 trillion rubles in market capitalization and 1 trillion rubles in daily volume, a standard that in practice would leave only a small number of assets, including bitcoin and ether, eligible for listing.

Other rejected changes included allowing Russian citizens to use non-custodial crypto wallets, removing mandatory transaction-by-transaction review powers for digital custody institutions, and postponing the law’s effective date to January 2027. In the current version, digital custodians retain the authority to review each transaction and freeze transfers. The bill passed its first reading in April, and discussion of a related criminal liability bill is also not expected before September.

Why It Matters

The committee’s stance points to a stricter market access model rather than a broader opening of Russia’s retail crypto market. The decision keeps tighter limits on who can buy, which assets can be offered, and how intermediaries monitor flows. That matters for exchanges, brokers, and custody providers because the commercial scope of any regulated market could remain narrow, with compliance controls concentrated around a small set of approved assets and supervised channels. Key implementation details, however, are still not final because the bill has not yet completed its second reading.

WEEX View

The next issue for the market is not only whether the bill advances in September, but whether lawmakers preserve the current structure of high listing thresholds and strong custodian intervention powers. If those provisions stay in place, compliant platforms in Russia may face a market with limited product breadth, lower altcoin turnover, and tighter onboarding boundaries for retail users. That could reinforce a split between officially permitted trading venues and offshore or peer-to-peer channels that sit outside domestic distribution controls.

Exchanges and liquidity providers should also watch how the related criminal liability framework develops alongside the main bill. Enforcement language will shape listing appetite, market-making participation, and custody risk more than the headline investor caps alone. The unanswered questions include which institutions will qualify as approved intermediaries, how freeze powers would be applied in practice, and whether non-custodial wallet restrictions would push users away from regulated rails rather than into them.

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