A revised draft would create a separate legal category for stablecoins, limit most foreign digital instruments to qualified investors, and dovetail with central bank plans to route stablecoin activity through supervised operators.
Russia’s latest cryptocurrency bill would tighten limits on foreign stablecoins by carving them out from traditional cryptocurrencies and placing most purchases beyond the reach of retail investors. The current version of Bill No. 1194918-8, titled On Digital Currencies and Digital Rights, treats stablecoins as a separate category because they are issued by identifiable entities and carry redemption obligations, including the holder’s right to request cash repayment at face value from the issuer. The draft also introduces two legal concepts for foreign digital financial products: foreign digital instruments, covering rights issued under foreign law through foreign information systems, including tokenized assets, and non-deliverable foreign digital instruments, which certify monetary claims and allow financial settlement without transferring the underlying asset. Under the proposed framework, only professional or qualified investors could buy foreign digital instruments, while retail investors would be confined to products specifically approved and listed by the Bank of Russia. The bill sits alongside a separate initiative from the Central Bank of Russia, which proposed in late June that all stablecoin transactions be conducted under state supervision through licensed exchanges or authorized cryptocurrency exchange offices. Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina has said the regulator remains concerned about foreign stablecoins because their issuers can freeze assets in users’ wallets. Earlier reporting also showed the State Duma Financial Market Committee backed rejecting amendments that would have eased retail crypto limits, while the bill’s passage was delayed from July 1 to September 1 and depositories retained authority to inspect and freeze transactions.