Russia registers first licensed crypto exchanges and custodians

Russia has registered its first licensed crypto firms. The Bank of Russia named four crypto exchange operators and five custodians on new public registers that took effect on October 5, 2026. State banks Sberbank and VTB are on the lists. Legal trading can begin.

The lists put Russia's biggest state banks at the center of a market the Kremlin kept at arm's length for years. They rest on a law on digital currencies and digital rights, in force since September 1, and on two central bank acts that came into force on October 5, the regulator said. Firms can trade now. They have until September 1, 2027 to meet the rules in full.

Who made the first lists

Four companies hold exchange operator status: T-Invest Lab, Zefir, Sistema-Crypto and VTB Bank. Five hold custodian status, also called digital depositories: Sberbank, Atomyze, Voltari, Cloud Infrastructure and VTB Bank. VTB sits on both. That puts two of the country's largest state-controlled banks at the heart of the new market from day one.

An exchange operator runs the venue where buyers and sellers meet. A custodian holds the coins and keeps the records. Splitting the two jobs is meant to protect client assets if a trading firm fails. It mirrors how regulated stock markets already work.

What the law allows, and what it still blocks

The law legalizes buying and selling major cryptocurrencies through firms the central bank oversees. It does not let anyone pay for goods or services with crypto inside the country. That ban stays. Companies may still use digital currencies for cross-border payments, a route Moscow has promoted to move trade around Western sanctions.

Access is tight. Non-qualified investors, about 98 percent of Russian investors by the central bank's own count, can buy no more than 300,000 rubles of crypto a year through any single firm, roughly $3,800 at the exchange rate when the law passed, according to The Moscow Times. They must pass a knowledge test first. Qualified investors face no annual cap but still sit the test.

Vladimir Chistyukhin, the central bank's First Deputy Governor, has said Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and Tether (USDT) meet the rules for eligible assets. Anatoly Aksakov, who chairs the State Duma's financial markets committee, put the aim plainly. "Mass use of anonymous wallets and the gray circulation of cryptocurrencies contradict the idea of a legal market," he said.

What the banks plan to sell

Sberbank, the country's biggest lender, plans to switch on crypto custody and trading on December 1, 2026. It will start with Bitcoin, Ether and Tether, offered through its SberBank Online app, SberInvestments and SberBusiness, according to crypto.news. VTB is moving on a similar timeline. Vitaly Sergeichuk, a VTB deputy chief executive, said the bank expects to offer crypto trading through its VTB My Investments app as early as November, with its own exchange to follow in December.

What none of the banks has spelled out is pricing. Neither Sberbank nor VTB has published the fees retail clients will pay to trade or store coins. The amount of capital each custodian must hold is also missing from the public rules, with the central bank saying it will depend on the nature of the business.

What to watch

Demand is the real test. A legal venue run by a state bank is a different product from the offshore exchanges many Russians already use, and it comes with reporting, caps and a payments ban those platforms ignore. Whether traders move onshore for the legal cover, or stay offshore for the freedom, will show up in the volumes the registered firms report.

Dmitry Machikhin, who runs the blockchain analytics firm Bitok, has said many investors fear that addresses linked to regulated Russian platforms could be flagged by Western authorities. Russia's rules are stricter in parts than the EU's MiCA regime, yet they open a door the country kept shut for years. The first real numbers will come after December 1.