Online loss: the concept of "digital currency" will be included in the Criminal Code
The concept of "digital currency" will be introduced into the Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes - the relevant bill was approved by the Cabinet of Ministers. In particular, such a means of circulation will be fixed as property, and the procedure for its arrest and seizure will be established. Now, as the authors point out, the Criminal Code and the CPC do not even mention digital currencies, which significantly complicates the work of law enforcement agencies when working with them, experts say. But the problem for regulation, if the amendments are adopted, will remain the anonymity of most cryptocurrencies and the difficulty in identifying the owners. About how the changes will work and how the withdrawals are currently taking place, see the Izvestia article.
What is a digital currency?
The concept of "digital currency" will appear in the Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes. Such amendments, developed by the Ministry of Justice, were approved on Monday, April 14, by the government commission on legislative activity (the document is available to Izvestia), sources told the editorial board in the Cabinet.
Currently, digital currency can be stored using special mobile applications and web wallets ("hot wallets"), as well as offline on special devices and paper media ("cold wallets").
The bill is designed to reduce the risks associated with the circulation and use of digital currency in criminal activities, Vladimir Gruzdev, Chairman of the Board of the Russian Bar Association, told Izvestia. Currently, such a concept is contained only in the law "On Countering the Legalization of Proceeds from Crime and the Financing of Terrorism" and Federal Law No. 273-FZ "On Combating Corruption".
"For a long time, there was no certainty about issues related to the legislative regulation of crimes involving digital currencies," he noted. — And the bill should clarify the current legislation.
The absence of such norms complicates the investigation of criminal cases of crimes related to the use of cryptocurrencies, the authors of the amendments note.
In this regard, the bill recognizes digital currency as property for all articles of the Criminal Code and CPC. The authors point out that the specifics of such a currency and the features of remote access to it require a prompt response from law enforcement agencies during the investigation.
"But the current regulation, due to the lack of appropriate legal mechanisms, does not allow us to adequately ensure the safety of funds," the document says.
The bill also provides for an addendum to the Criminal Procedure Code, which will regulate the actions of an investigator when detecting a digital currency.
"Information about the availability of such currency or a material carrier with it may be discovered during a search. To prevent its concealment, the investigator is given the authority to seize it," the authors note.
When digital currency is seized, it will be withdrawn with the participation of specialists, Vladimir Gruzdev said. This, according to him, will guarantee the proper handling of such a specific type of property.
"For example, if the currency is stored in a hot wallet, it will be transferred to a special identifier address," he said.
This will ensure the safety of the digital currency. The government will determine the procedure for currency transfer.
"In the case of a cold wallet, media containing an access code or an already installed wallet with access through a specific physical medium may be confiscated," Vladimir Gruzdev added.
However, he noted that the issue of compensation for damages assessed in such a currency remains to be discussed — the difficulty is the fact that it is significantly subject to fluctuations.
How the digital currency was withdrawn
During a meeting of the board of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation in mid-March 2025, the Investigative Committee and the Ministry of Justice announced this bill, the press service of the Investigative Committee reported.
"Painstaking joint work has been carried out on the issue of the need to recognize digital currency as property for the purposes of criminal and criminal procedure legislation, resolve issues of seizing digital currency and recognizing it as material evidence," the message said.
Although digital currencies have not yet been included in the Criminal Code, they have already been seized in some criminal cases. For example, on January 14, 2025, Marat Tambiev, a former employee of the Moscow Investigative Committee, was convicted of the largest bribe in the history of Russia (7.3 billion rubles) in bitcoins. According to investigators, the bribe was intended for not seizing the assets of the alleged criminals, as well as for choosing a preventive measure in the form of house arrest instead of detention. The investigator kept the keys to the crypto wallet on his work computer in the "Pension" folder.
And in December 2024, as part of a criminal investigation against former Interior Ministry employee Georgy Satyukov, accused of taking bribes worth 5 billion rubles, property worth more than 2.1 billion rubles was seized, Chairman of the Investigative Committee of Russia Alexander Bastrykin reported.
"According to information from investigators, Satyukov became the recipient of a bribe in the amount of 5 billion rubles in the form of cryptocurrencies bitcoin and ethereum. The bribe was transferred by the administrator of the crypto exchange in exchange for his protection and support," he said.
In 2022, the Russian FSB began investigating the case against a number of REvil group members at the request of the United States. At that time, the detained defendants were charged only with money laundering. Searches, as reported by the FSB, took place in the homes of 14 members of the group, from whom over 426 million rubles were seized, including in cryptocurrency, $ 600 thousand, € 500 thousand, as well as computer equipment, crypto wallets and 20 premium cars.
According to investigators, the hackers were engaged in so—called carding - they bought bank card data from foreigners on the darknet and spent money from them. Information about 22 cards was found on the computers of the group's members, most of which, investigators noted, belong to US citizens. In October 2024, four of the 14 detained hackers from REvil were sentenced to terms ranging from 4.5 years to 6 years.
The main document regulating cryptocurrencies remains the law on digital financial assets, adopted in Russia in 2020. It creates a legal basis for transactions with digital currencies and defines the conditions for their use, Ekaterina Kutuzova, a practicing lawyer at the Adyghe Republican Bar Association, recalled.
"However, despite the existing legal norms, regulation remains a difficult task due to the cross—border nature and decentralized structure of most cryptocurrencies," she pointed out.
How to check the crypt
There are such formulations as "digital currency" or "digital financial assets" in federal laws, said Igor Rastorguev, a leading analyst at AMarkets. In his opinion, it was necessary to expand the understanding of property in connection with the development of digital assets at the suggestion of the Bank of Russia, which will be the only issuer of the digital ruble, for the widespread introduction of which banking and commercial infrastructures are being prepared.
"This is the moment when legislation in one area is trying to adapt to other regulations," he said. — And where there are property rights, there are also various disputes: administrative, criminal.
But at the same time, the very concept of digital currency was not included in the Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes, and it fell under other property rights. While digital currency as a property asset has its own specifics, the upcoming changes will allow for a more adequate assessment of various disputes, Igor Rastorguev added.
Recognizing digital currency as property will allow law enforcement agencies to use it as physical evidence, seize and confiscate it in criminal cases, believes Alexander Redkin, senior partner at Criminal Defense Firm. This is necessary to combat crimes where cryptocurrency is used as a means of payment or storing illegal income.
"In practice, this means that investigative authorities will be able to seize cryptocurrency, confiscate it and use it as a full-fledged object of criminal law regulation," the expert explained. — So, arrests are already being made, the court makes a decision on withdrawal, but at the moment the mechanism of foreclosure on cryptocurrency is not regulated.
The mechanisms for withdrawing cryptocurrencies depend on the way they are stored: if these are "cold" wallets (flash drives), this simplifies withdrawal. For example, physical media (for example, USB devices) and access codes are being seized.
— If we are talking about "hot" wallets, then funds must be transferred to a special identifier address to ensure safety, — he explained. — The investigator, after receiving information about the wallet, changes the password so that no one else can have access.
But the sale of cryptocurrencies to the state's income is much more difficult, since the FSSP does not have a working mechanism for collecting cryptocurrencies, for which it is exchanged for ordinary money, Alexander Redkin added. The proof of the use of cryptocurrencies in crimes is based on the analysis of blockchain transactions that are stored in public registries. However, the anonymity of most cryptocurrencies makes it difficult to identify the owners.
— For this purpose, identification through exchanges and exchangers is used, which are required to verify customers (through personal data), tracking suspicious transactions using analytical tools, cooperation with Rosfinmonitoring and international structures to identify links between transactions and criminal activity, — he said.
Digital currencies such as bitcoin and ethereum have become an important part of the modern financial system, says Ekaterina Kutuzova. However, their unique characteristics cause difficulties in regulation and pose certain problems from the point of view of criminal law, in particular, related to the inability to fully track transactions.
Blockchain technology makes it almost impossible to identify users without additional data. This is often used to conduct illegal transactions, including payments on the darknet, which complicates the work of law enforcement agencies.
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