Russian Finance Ministry Wants to Lower Citizens’ Barriers to Crypto Market Entry

The Russian finance ministry says it wants to make it easier for citizens to access the crypto market, calling for a reduction in Moscow’s income threshold for crypto ￰1￱ Russian news outlets RBC and Interfax reported that the comments came from Alexey Yakovlev, the Director of the Financial Policy Department at the Ministry of ￰2￱ suggested that to “improve the quality” of the Central Bank’s supervised crypto trading pilot, “more participants need to access the project.” Alexey Yakovlev, Director of the Ministry of Finance’s Financial Policy Department. () Russian Finance Ministry: Crypto Pilot Needs More Participants The Central Bank and the ministry have been at loggerheads on crypto-related matters for several ￰3￱ ministry has previously pressed for more regulations and taxes for crypto exchanges and ￰4￱ the bank has repeatedly called for a total ban on crypto trading and the outlawing of crypto trading ￰5￱ year, President Vladimir Putin ordered the parties to strike a ￰6￱ has also begun a crypto pivot that has seen it use tokens like Bitcoin (BTC) as a payment tool in cross-border trade ￰7￱ also called for parts of the country with idle energy reserves to actively engage in crypto ￰8￱ President Donald Trump said the US could increase its troop presence in Poland and insinuated more financial penalties targeting Russia were in the works ￰0￱ — Bloomberg (@business) September 3, 2025 Russian Crypto Trading Pilot The Central Bank has responded by creating what it calls an experimental legal regime (ELR) for crypto ￰9￱ ELR is essentially a sandbox for companies that want to use crypto in place of the US dollar in trade ￰10￱ it also allows “highly qualified” investors to buy and sell crypto under the bank’s ￰11￱ individuals with large personal fortunes have been allowed to trade crypto in the ￰12￱ must hold securities and deposits worth over 100 million rubles ($1,231,648) or prove that their income for the previous year exceeded 50 million rubles ($615,753).

But the ministry says that this must ￰13￱ to some Russian estimates, average monthly salaries in the nation range from $700 to just over $1,200. Yakovlev did not specify how much the ministry would like to reduce the threshold ￰14￱ he said that “a downward adjustment is currently being discussed.” The ministry official hinted that while the ministry still thinks some sort of thresholds should remain in place, it thinks that restricting ordinary citizens’ access to the ELR is ￰15￱ Russian Ministry of Finance. () Permanent Crypto Regulations Incoming Yakovlev added that the original plans for the ELR specify a three-year time limit, after which the ministry and the bank will create “permanent” regulations for the ￰16￱ such, he said, “We must involve a larger number of participants in order to test all the processes involved.” Restricting testing to “a super-small layer” of society would not help the ELR fulfil its intended function, he ￰17￱ Russian FinMin said its oil and gas revenues in August were short of 10.5 billion rubles and expected a further shortfall of 21 billion rubles in September.

Thus, to close the deficit, the ministry will again have to sell foreign currency — 31.5 billion rubles per month. Oil… — The Bell (@thebell_io) September 3, 2025 The Central Bank has long maintained that “unqualified investors must enjoy maximum protection” from the “high-risk” crypto ￰18￱ has proposed banning all crypto transactions outside the ELR, establishing criminal liability for non-compliance. However, there is evidence to suggest the bank is becoming increasingly isolated in its stance on the ￰19￱ Moscow Exchange has begun offering qualified investors access to a range of securities tied to the price of overseas crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Some Russian brokers and commercial banks have also begun exploring similar business avenues, in addition to crypto derivative ￰20￱ added the Ministry of Finance also wants to use the ELR to expand the range of assets companies can ￰21￱ suggested that issuers could get the green light to release coins tied to real-world assets , intellectual “activity,” and corporate rights in limited liability ￰22￱ ministry official said that Moscow may look to token-powered smart contract technology to boost investors’ options.