Call out from the shadows: illegal cryptocurrency trafficking will be added to the Criminal Code

Criminal liability will be introduced in Russia for the circulation of digital currency without registration and a license from the Central Bank. A new article of the Criminal Code will be provided for this purpose. Such a bill was approved by the Cabinet of Ministers. The maximum penalty under this article will be seven years in prison, both for the organizers and intermediaries of such trafficking. Currently, only a "drop in the bucket" of the Russian cryptocurrency turnover passes through the licensed infrastructure, experts say. The amendments will ensure transparency of this process, the Finance Ministry hopes. How the new mechanism will work is described in the Izvestia article.

Who is facing punishment

He will face up to seven years in prison for illegal trafficking of digital currency without registration and a license from the Central Bank. Such a bill by the Ministry of Finance, introducing a new article into the Criminal Code, was approved on April 13 by the government commission on legislative activity. This was reported to Izvestia by sources in the Cabinet of Ministers.

Photo: IZVESTIA/Sergey Lantyukhov

A mandatory sign of a crime will be the infliction of large-scale damage or the extraction of large-scale income, Vladimir Gruzdev, Chairman of the Board of the Association of Lawyers of Russia (AYUR), explained to Izvestia.

"The organizers of such a turnover and intermediaries will face punishment," he said.

The explanatory note to the amendments notes that they are designed to ensure transparency of the digital currency market, minimize financial crimes and prevent risks from uncontrolled turnover.

The amendments introduce fines of up to 300 thousand rubles, forced labor or imprisonment for up to four years. And if the crime is committed by an organized group or involves particularly large damage or income, it will face up to seven years in prison.

— At the same time, it is proposed to consider the amount of 3.5 million rubles as major damage, and the amount of 13 million rubles as particularly large, — Vladimir Gruzdev explained.

Photo: IZVESTIA/Sergey Lantyukhov

The Investigative Committee and the FSB will conduct a preliminary investigation into such cases.

If adopted, the amendments will enter into force on July 1, 2027.

Why do I need a new article?

Regulation of cryptocurrency circulation in Russia is now very strict, noted economist Andrey Barkhota.

— In fact, the use of this tool is allowed only in the framework of conducting calculations on foreign economic activity, — he said.

However, this did not prevent the Russian cryptocurrency market from growing to a serious scale: according to the analytical company Chainalysis, about $376 billion passed through it between July 2024 and June 2025, said Denis Astafyev, fund manager and founder of the SharesPro fintech platform.

— At the same time, the officially licensed infrastructure at the end of the first quarter of 2025 held only about 827 billion rubles. This is a drop in the bucket compared to the total turnover, which the Central Bank estimated at 7.3 trillion rubles in six months," he said.

Photo: IZVESTIA/Sergey Lantyukhov

All the difference goes through P2P exchangers (platforms for direct purchase/sale of cryptocurrencies between users without intermediaries), OTC "farms" (platforms or services for making large direct asset purchase and sale transactions) and "gray" intermediary chains.

— That is, past the tax service, financial monitoring and the state, — Denis Astafyev noted. — That's where the main risks are. Cryptocurrency has long been a tool of "shadow" finance.

According to the Bank of Russia, two thirds of the funds stolen by telephone scammers from Russians are legalized through cryptocurrency.

— Illegal intermediaries — crypto exchanges without licenses — actually perform the function of a clearing house for these schemes, — said Denis Astafyev. — No customer identification requirements, no reporting to Rosfinmonitoring, no guarantees for the users themselves.

Dmitry Tselishchev, Managing Director of the Rikom-Trust investment company, believes that the initiative will allow legal participants in the new market to receive preferences, leaving no chance for shadow players to continue their activities.

"The landscape of crypto exchange operations will also change in some way, where most of them will go to a controlled blockchain for investment purposes, while a smaller part will remain in the gray area for transactions abroad," he believes.

Photo: IZVESTIA/Anna Selina

At the same time, new legal initiatives are not discussed with market participants, and their architecture adapts to the business interests of several large market participants, said Andrey Loboda, a member of the Mining Activities Committee of the Council of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation for the financial Market.

"For their recognition by a wide range of market participants, it would be decent to talk about strengthening the protection of the rights of private crypto investors, because Russians have invested about 3 trillion rubles in cryptocurrencies," he said.

The comprehensive bill on regulating the circulation of cryptocurrencies that is being worked on will significantly change this market, the expert believes. A full-fledged infrastructure of the crypto industry will appear: exchanges, exchangers, digital depositories, and other market entities.

But its rules should be balanced in order not to end up with a monopoly of banks and other financial intermediaries for conducting operations in this industry, Andrei Loboda added. The imbalance does not make the economy efficient and innovative, experts noted.