Quick Take

Russia is moving closer to opening its cryptocurrency market to non-qualified investors through new legislation, according to a Tuesday report from state news agency TASS.

Anatoly Aksakov, chairman of the State Duma's Financial Markets Committee, reportedly said the draft bill is ready and will be taken up during the spring parliamentary session. 

"A bill has already been prepared that removes cryptocurrencies from special financial regulation, meaning they will become commonplace in our lives," Aksakov said in a translated interview with the Russia-24 television channel, cited by TASS.

However, non-qualified traders will have limited access to the retail market, Aksakov added. Under the expected framework, individuals who do not meet Russia's qualified-investor criteria will be allowed to purchase up to 300,000 rubles ($3,800) worth of crypto. Professional market participants, he said, face no such limits.

Beyond domestic trading, Aksakov expects the legislation to facilitate international usage of crypto, including cross-border settlements and the overseas placement of Russian-issued tokens.

His comments follow earlier reports that Russia is preparing to ease restrictions on retail participation in the crypto market. 

In December, the Bank of Russia proposed a framework that would allow non-qualified investors to trade crypto after passing a risk-awareness test, while continuing to prohibit anonymous or privacy-focused digital assets. 

Around the same time, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said the Finance Ministry and the central bank were working on a coordinated approach to permit retail access with defined risk thresholds, according to a TASS report. Both institutions have indicated that capping the volume of retail crypto transactions and investments would be essential to reducing systemic risk.