A draft bill working its way through Russia's parliament would treat the operation of an unregistered crypto service as a criminal offense, Cointelegraph reported on April 18, 2026. The text targets exchanges, brokerages and over-the-counter desks that serve Russian users without holding the local registration the central bank and finance ministry have been building toward since 2022.
If passed in its current form, the bill is the first time Russia would attach criminal liability, not just administrative fines, to running a crypto venue outside the permitted perimeter. That includes foreign exchanges that quietly accept Russian-issued documents, P2P escrow desks that match domestic buyers and sellers in roubles, and OTC traders moving size for clients inside the country.
What "unregistered" actually means here
Russia's framework for crypto activity has grown in pieces. The Central Bank of Russia and the Ministry of Finance spent the back half of the 2020s building a category of "permitted operator" for crypto exchange and mining services, with Russia leaning on registration to gate access to the rouble banking system. Mining was formalized in late 2024. A cross-border settlement experiment using crypto for sanctioned trade was extended in 2025.
What was missing, until this draft, was a stick for anyone operating outside that gated channel. Until now the consequence was administrative: a fine, an order to cease, a blocked website. Criminalization changes the calculation for both operators and users who might be classed as accomplices in a prosecution.
Who this hits hardest
Three groups feel this first:
- Foreign exchanges still onboarding Russians. Several global venues kept thin onboarding flows open after the 2022 sanctions wave, often via VPN-tolerant signup. A criminal statute gives Russian prosecutors a basis to pressure local affiliates and any payment processor that routes the rouble leg.
- P2P desks. The grey-market P2P scene that filled the gap after 2022 sanctions, with Telegram-coordinated escrow flows, has operated in the absence of a clean criminal hook. The new draft creates one.
- OTC traders moving size domestically. The prepared traders who route block flow for Russian corporates and high-net-worth clients have been shifting toward the permitted-operator framework anyway. The bill accelerates that move and prices the alternative as a felony rather than a paperwork miss.
The framework split this creates
The likely outcome, if the bill becomes law, is a sharper split between two layers of Russian crypto activity. The permitted layer (domestic registered exchanges, the central bank's planned digital rouble pilots, regulated mining) gets a clearer monopoly on legal flow. Everything else moves further offshore or further underground, with the legal cost of getting caught now measured in criminal terms.
That is the same playbook other jurisdictions have used to consolidate market structure. Pakistan's central bank just told banks to open accounts for licensed crypto firms, formalising a permitted channel by raising the cost of the alternative. Russia is approaching the same outcome from a different direction: instead of widening the legal channel, the draft narrows the illegal one.
Practical implications for Russian crypto users
For an individual Russian holder, three things change in practice:
- Counterparty risk on foreign venues rises. A foreign exchange that quietly tolerated Russian sign-ups has a stronger reason to close those accounts proactively rather than wait for a Russian prosecution test case to set precedent.
- P2P escrow becomes more expensive. Operators who keep running take a higher fee to compensate for the new legal exposure. That fee shows up in worse spreads at the rouble fiat ramp.
- Spending tools narrow. Crypto cards that route through non-Russian issuers and rely on a foreign exchange leg to fund the card balance are squeezed at both ends. Vendors with no Russian presence may simply geoblock to avoid the question.
The bill is at the introduction stage, not signed law. The committee process and any amendments through the Duma will reshape the final text. The direction of travel, though, has been consistent for two years: legal crypto activity in Russia happens inside a registered perimeter or it does not happen legally at all.
Overview
Russia's parliament is considering a draft bill that would make running an unregistered crypto service a criminal offense, not just an administrative one. The change would put criminal liability on foreign exchanges, P2P desks and OTC traders that serve Russian users outside the permitted-operator framework the country has been building since 2022. If passed, it sharpens the split between domestic regulated venues and the offshore grey market, and tightens the cost of routing rouble flow through any channel that has not been formally registered.
