Bank of Russia Registers First Nine Operators for Bitcoin (BTC) Trading and Custody

The Bank of Russia has registered the country's first nine legal providers of digital asset services, clearing four exchange operators and five custodial platforms under a framework that took effect on September 1, 2026.

The registrations, announced on Tuesday, are the first entries ever made in the central bank's registry of authorized digital asset operators, marking the formal start of registered Bitcoin (BTC) trading and custody activity in Russia. Until now, no Russian company had been formally registered to provide these services, making the registry the dividing line between authorized digital asset operators and the rest of the market.

First Entries Under the New Framework

Under the regime, exchange operators and custodial platforms must be registered with the Bank of Russia in order to provide digital asset services legally. The initial cohort consists of four firms authorized to conduct exchange operations and five platforms approved to provide custody, covering the two core activities of trading and the safekeeping of client assets. In this first cohort, each authorization maps to one of the two core activities, the central bank a registry that distinguishes trading providers from custody providers. For firms on the list, registration provides a legal basis to operate under the oversight of the country's principal financial regulator; the Bank of Russia acts as the registering authority under the framework.

Background: Russia's Digital Asset Rules

Russia's formal legal recognition of digital assets dates to the "On Digital Financial Assets" law, which entered into force in January 2021. That legislation permitted the issuance and circulation of digital assets while prohibiting their use as a means of payment for goods and services within Russia.

In 2024, Russian authorities expanded the framework by legalizing cryptocurrency mining and allowing digital currencies to be used in cross-border settlements under an experimental legal regime. Russian residents may hold and trade digital assets within the limits of the domestic payment ban.

The clearance of the first nine operators under the framework that took effect on September 1, 2026 represents the first time companies have been formally registered in Russia to provide Bitcoin trading and custody services. Seen against that timeline — from defining digital assets in 2021, to permitting mining and cross-border settlement in 2024, to authorizing service providers in 2026 — the registrations complete a stepwise build-out of legal channels for holding, trading, and safekeeping digital assets, while the ban on using them for domestic payments remains in force and cross-border use continues under the experimental regime.

How the framework develops from here will be visible in the registry itself: the operational launch of the first four exchange and five custodial platforms, and any subsequent registry entries, are the concrete markers of the new system taking effect.

This was first published on COINOTAG: https://en.coinotag.com/bank-of-russia-registers-first-nine-bitcoin-btc-trading-custody-operators