Russia bill would expand crypto monitoring, cap banks’ exposure at 1%

Russia is preparing additional legislation that would deepen state oversight of cryptocurrency use by giving Rosfinmonitoring broader authority over transfers, lowering the reporting threshold for many transactions to 60,000 rubles and requiring extensive personal data for larger payments. The draft would also automatically report crypto settlement transactions tied to foreign trade from 1 million rubles and cover transactions between residents and foreigners, extending scrutiny over a market that has become more important during the sanctions era. Deputy Finance Minister Ivan Chebeskov has said roughly 20 million Russians use crypto in some form, and in February 2026 said daily transaction volumes in Russia are close to 50 billion rubles, or more than 10 trillion rubles a year. Separate reports cited cross-border crypto payments in Russian trade at about 1 trillion rubles in 2025, much of it linked to China, India and Turkey. The bill would also tighten bank oversight by limiting crypto exposure to 1% of capital and allowing the central bank to suspend or limit certain bank crypto transactions if they could destabilize the financial system. Lawmakers have dropped an earlier proposal that would have required Russians to disclose wallet addresses, while proposed eligibility rules for legal circulation would set thresholds that only Bitcoin and Ether currently meet. Anatoly Aksakov said lawmakers intend to complete the package quickly and that the law should take effect on September 1, a timetable also cited separately by Interfax in comments from Vladimir Chistyukhin.