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- It is allowed to go abroad: the legalization of the crypt from September 1 will not simplify the calculations for importers
It is allowed to go abroad: the legalization of the crypt from September 1 will not simplify the calculations for importers
The legalization of cross-border payments in cryptocurrency from September 1, 2026 will not solve the problems of Russian importers, experts interviewed by Izvestia believe. Firstly, in most countries, foreign partners are still prohibited from accepting payments in crypto. Secondly, cross-border settlements are mostly conducted in the USDT stablecoin, which is less volatile than bitcoin. However, after passing through official Russian platforms, such assets may be blocked by order of the American authorities in accordance with the sanctions. There will also be no services for citizens to legally purchase cryptocurrencies: although the relevant law has been adopted, the regulatory framework of the Central Bank has not yet been developed, and without it, brokers cannot introduce new functionality. However, market participants are already preparing to work with digital assets. What the law that is coming into force provides and what opportunities it will give to importers and private investors is in the Izvestia article.
How to legally buy cryptocurrency
Federal Law No. 282-FZ "On Digital Currencies and Digital Rights" comes into force on September 1, 2026. The document forms the systemic outline of the market and for the first time introduces professional intermediaries into civil circulation: digital depositories (custodians), brokers, managers, trade organizers and exchange operators — crypto exchanges with a turnover of over 3.5 million rubles per month, Alexander Shadrin, director of the Promminer legal department, explained to Izvestia. Now individuals and legal entities will be able to legally not only own such currencies, but also carry out transactions with them — buy and sell. At the same time, it is still prohibited to pay with crypto inside Russia, while it is now possible to make cross-border transactions.
However, despite the entry into force of the law, it will not be possible to buy cryptocurrency in the bank's application in the coming days.: To launch the infrastructure, it is necessary to adopt a package of regulatory acts of the Bank of Russia. The regulator will have to establish criteria for the admission of coins to circulation, the procedure for testing investors, capital requirements for crypto exchanges and rules for accounting for digital currencies, listed economist Viktor Mangazeev. The Central Bank itself expects to complete this work by November 2026. According to the financial advisor and founder of Rodin.Alexey Rodin's Capital, the first transactions in accordance with the new legislation may be completed by the New Year at best.
Izvestia has sent inquiries to the largest brokers and exchanges to find out if they plan to launch trading in cryptocurrencies and when. The press service of the St. Petersburg Stock Exchange reported that the site plans to implement such functionality only after the relevant regulations of the Central Bank come into force. They are currently forming the necessary technological infrastructure for the organization of trades and settlements, including the creation of a digital depository.
The asset storage scheme and the client path are still under development, and the full launch of services for the mass user is planned only for the beginning of 2027, said Dmitry Lesnov, Deputy General Director for brokerage at Finam. According to him, the purchase of cryptocurrencies for citizens will be integrated into familiar trading applications. They will introduce a system of mandatory risk testing, similar to the procedures on the stock market, as well as technical control of the annual limit.
At the same time, brokers will assume the functions of tax agents: they will independently calculate and deduct personal income tax when making purchase and sale transactions by clients, the expert noted. Since cryptocurrency is recognized as property, when selling it, you will have to pay personal income tax at a rate of 13% (or higher if the annual income exceeds 2.4 million rubles) from the "net" profit — the difference between income and documented purchase expenses.
The legalization of intermediaries is aimed at reducing the shadow sector, said Evgeny Masharov, a member of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation. According to him, the lack of clear rules has played into the hands of telephone scammers and illegal crypto exchanges for years, and the introduction of requirements for their activities will allow them to distinguish between legitimate businesses and criminal schemes.
As the press service of Rosfinmonitoring informed Izvestia, from September 1, digital currency exchange operators and digital depositories will begin to obey the "anti-money laundering" legislation.: They will have to send information to financial intelligence about operations subject to mandatory control, as well as information at the request of the service. However, the exact criteria for such transactions have not yet been established. It is likely that we will be talking about large transactions, similar to non—cash payments, for which a mandatory control threshold of 1 million rubles is set.
Experts call the legally established limit on the transfer of funds to cryptocurrency for unqualified investors no more than 300 thousand rubles per year to replenish the crypto wallet a key obstacle to the mass whitewashing of the retail segment. You will also need to be tested before starting trading. Larger transactions will be available to qualified investors, however, in order to obtain this status, it is necessary to confirm the availability of assets in the amount of 24 million rubles or more, specialized economic education or relevant work experience in the financial market.
The amount of 300 thousand rubles only allows you to test the interface, but it actually excludes the possibility of professional trading on the spot market, according to Bitbanker financial analyst Andrey Poroshin. By itself, the established limit is unlikely to be a sufficient incentive to get out of the shadows, Viktor Mangazeev agrees: those who want to circumvent the restriction are more likely to continue using foreign platforms than risk being criminalized for systematic transactions for large sums.
Legalizing Cryptocurrencies for Business
One of the main factors in the adoption of the law on the legalization of cross-border transactions with crypto was the need to provide Russian importers and exporters with an alternative tool for settlements in the face of sanctions and problems with bank transactions. The law allows the use of digital currencies in international settlements without restrictions on the amount.
Legalization gives Russian businesses an important advantage: the ability to officially record such transactions in accounting, close transaction passports with authorized banks, and report to customs and the Federal Tax Service. However, the adopted regulatory framework does not guarantee solutions to problems with cross-border payments, experts interviewed by Izvestia believe.
The first barrier is the position of foreign regulators. The very fact of allowing crypto payments in Russia does not oblige a foreign counterparty to accept digital currency, said Andrey Poroshin from Bitbanker.
— The cryptocurrency market exists, for example, in Turkey, but the Central Bank of the country explicitly prohibits the use of assets to pay for goods and services, both directly and indirectly. Therefore, a conditional Turkish factory will not be able to simply issue an invoice in USDT or bitcoin. In countries where direct crypto payments are limited, an intermediate infrastructure will still be required: transfer to a foreign intermediary in a permitted jurisdiction, conversion to fiat, and transfer of the usual yuan, lira, or euro to the supplier. All this makes payments longer and requires additional fees," he explained.
The second challenge is the choice of a settlement instrument. For the stability of contracts, businesses usually do not use decentralized cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin, whose exchange rate is highly volatile, but the USDT stablecoin, pegged to the dollar. However, its issuer, Tether, is centralized and strictly adheres to the requirements of the US authorities, regularly blocking addresses, including those linked to Russia. If the coin passes through the domestic infrastructure, it will not be difficult for the issuer to track such transactions and freeze them.
At the same time, the legislation that is coming into force creates a legal mechanism for the sale of coins minted in Russia and paves the way for the emergence of Russian treasury companies that form reserves in bitcoin, said Oleg Ogienko, CEO of VIA Numeri Group, ex-director of the Industrial Mining Association. That is, large enterprises, energy and industrial companies with spare capacities will theoretically be able to use them to mine cryptocurrencies without buying it for rubles.
There is a trend in the world towards the influx of institutional capital into mining and the creation of corporate bitcoin reserves within the country, Pavel Podkorytov, CEO of Hodl, agrees. However, Russia may simply not have enough internal cryptoliquidity for this, warned Alexander Shadrin from Promminer. High electricity tariffs, the decline in the market rate of cryptocurrencies and the strengthening of the ruble led to a drop in the profitability of Russian mining in 2026.
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