Russia plans to restrict retail crypto buys to Bitcoin, Ether and USDT

The Bank of Russia just did something that would have sounded like satire three years ago: it officially approved Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tether’s USDT for public trading on licensed exchanges. The decision, made on August 11, marks the first time any digital assets have been cleared for organized trading under Russia’s new cryptocurrency legislation. The framework takes effect on September 1, 2026, and comes with a notable catch. Digital assets can be traded and held as investments, but using them to buy a coffee, a car, or anything else domestically remains flatly prohibited. What the new rules actually require To qualify for public trading, a digital asset must carry a minimum average market capitalization of 5 trillion rubles. It must also demonstrate average daily trading volume exceeding 1 trillion rubles over a two-year period. And it needs at least five years of pricing history recorded on international platforms. Bitcoin, Ethereum, and USDT clear those bars. Most everything else in crypto does not. Privacy coins are explicitly banned under the new regime, a move consistent with Russia’s stated goal of maintaining oversight and traceability across all approved digital asset ...