The Bank of Russia has officially approved three major cryptocurrencies — Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and the U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin Tether (USDT) — for public trading, making them available to non-professional investors. Licensed exchanges may begin listing the coins later this month, the regulator said.

The move formally defines the first set of digital assets that ordinary Russians will be free to buy and sell legally under the country's new crypto framework.

Russians permitted to buy BTC, ETH and USDT

The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) has finalized the list of digital assets that even “non-qualified” retail investors will be allowed to acquire and sell legally: the three cryptocurrencies with the largest market capitalization.

Authorized trading platforms will be able to offer the assets as soon as the bank's respective directive comes into effect on November 17, local media reports revealed.

In a press release announced on Friday and quoted by the business information portal RBC, the Russian edition of Forbes and other news outlets, the monetary authority stated:

“Non-qualified investors will be able to purchase cryptocurrencies through various intermediaries – such as brokers, asset managers, or crypto exchanges – in both exchange and over-the-counter (OTC) markets.”

The regulator cautioned, however, that such purchases are limited to a total of 300,000 rubles per year through a single intermediary, or less than $3,700 at the current exchange rate.

“Only the most liquid assets, meeting the criteria specified by the law, have been included in the list,” the Bank of Russia emphasized in a statement posted on its website.

Besides market capitalization, the CBR noted that average daily trading volume and the assets' price history on international platforms were also taken into account in the selection process.

When it first signaled in August that it would greenlight the three cryptocurrencies, the CBR highlighted that a coin's trading history must span at least five years prior to admission to the Russian market. To be approved for regulated trading, a digital asset's capitalization must have exceeded an average of 5 trillion rubles (over $60 billion) over the past two years, and its average daily trading volume should be above 1 trillion rubles (more than $12 billion) for the same period, as previously reported by Cryptopolitan.

Russia's main financial regulator argued that the approach is intended to mitigate risks for non-qualified investors putting money into crypto assets. The bank also stressed that all investors, regardless of status, must acquaint themselves with the risks associated with crypto investing and pass a test designed to verify their awareness.

In practice, those thresholds mean the first legal crypto exposure for ordinary Russians will be confined to the market's most liquid, longest-traded assets, with every other token remaining outside their reach.

Russia prepares to launch its regulated crypto market

Under increasing pressure from Western sanctions restricting its access to traditional finance, Russia has significantly softened its stance on cryptocurrencies over the past couple of years. After its central bank permitted the offering of crypto derivatives in the spring of 2025, parliament adopted a comprehensive regulatory framework in the summer of 2026 that legalized investment and trading, among other activities.

The new law “On Digital Currencies and Digital Rights,” which entered into force on September 1, grants professional participants almost unrestricted access to the market. “Non-qualified” investors — the majority of ordinary Russian citizens — will be able to buy only the most liquid coins. Testing and assessment standards for both categories were developed recently.

The legislation introduces a licensing regime for cryptocurrency exchanges and digital depositories. To be legal, all transactions must be processed by CBR-authorized trading and custodial platforms.

The result is a closely regulated and strictly controlled market, as mainly big players — such as Russia's majority state-owned banks and largest stock exchanges — will be able to meet the requirements, and those institutions are ready to tap into crypto profits. The Moscow Exchange and the banking giant Sberbank have announced plans to launch coin trading on December 1, with others set to follow soon. With the CBR's directive taking effect on November 17 and the first major venues targeting December 1, the coming weeks are set to show how quickly licensed crypto trading reaches ordinary Russian investors.

They are among roughly two dozen organizations already registered by the Bank of Russia as providers of crypto trading and custodial services. A number of these entities, both traditional and fintech, are sanctioned.