Russia’s central bank has added 2,600 cryptocurrency wallets linked to suspected illegal financial activity to a monitoring system used by banks and law enforcement after more than 1 billion rubles flowed into the addresses in the first half of 2026. The wallets belonged to companies, projects, individual entrepreneurs and other entities showing signs of illegal activity in the financial market. In the same period the regulator identified 2,891 such entities, down nearly 31% from a year earlier, while banks restricted more than 500 payment details and authorities limited access to over 11,800 online resources. More than 74% of identified pyramid schemes used cryptocurrencies to attract funds, often through fake investment, mining or data-center offers, and illegal lenders doubled to 999, including services promoting crypto loans. The actions come as Russia prepares a licensed crypto market framework under Bank of Russia supervision, while keeping domestic crypto payments banned.