Russia Hands P2P a July 1, 2027 Expiry Date — Nonces Out, Brokers In 🪙

The Bank of Russia confirmed this week that peer-to-peer cryptocurrency trades between individuals will be prohibited starting July 1, 2027, ending a model long used by Russian residents to swap rubles for $BTC, $ETH and USDT outside regulated channels. The restriction is laid out in updated guidance the central bank posted on its official website on October 12, citing Article 30 of Federal Law No. 282-FZ, the “On Digital Currencies and Digital Rights” statute President Vladimir Putin signed on August 4. Article 30 currently lists the crypto operations residents may carry out without a licensed intermediary; from July 2027, trades directly between individuals no longer appear on that list.

Under the new framework, residents will be required to trade digital currencies through or directly with companies that “organize the circulation” of digital currencies — primarily brokers licensed by the Bank of Russia and crypto exchange organizations listed in the central bank’s registry. The regulator also clarified that individuals cannot move crypto from a digital account to their own non-custodial wallet, where the holder controls the private keys, and that person-to-person transfers routed through addresses run by a licensed digital depository are likewise prohibited, even when used to settle a trade. Lending crypto is restricted to brokers, trustees, exchange organizations and clearing houses, removing ordinary users from the lender side of the market.

The guidance applies to a market Russia has spent the past year formalizing. The country’s crypto law took effect September 1, bringing exchange operators and custodians under central bank oversight and providing a transition window for existing businesses to obtain licenses. On the same day the new guidance was issued, the Bank of Russia added Sberbank, the country’s largest lender, to its register of crypto exchange organizations, with Sberbank planning first crypto products for December 1, according to Interfax. VTB and T-Invest Lab are also on the register. Companies seeking crypto exchange status must be Russian entities with at least 15 million rubles (about $179,000) in equity and be entered in the central bank’s registry, though they may continue operating without registration until July 1, 2027.

Investor access rules remain tiered. Non-qualified investors must pass a test and can buy up to 300,000 rubles (about $3,600) of crypto per year, while qualified investors face no cap, and $BTC, $ETH and USDT are the only coins on the central bank’s approved list for non-qualified buyers. Andrei Tugarin, managing partner at GMT Legal, told Kommersant FM that from July 1, 2027, Russian banks will have to refuse clients attempting to fund crypto wallets on foreign platforms and cannot accept rubles cashed out from those platforms. The broader law continues to bar Russians from spending crypto on goods and services domestically, while permitting its use in foreign trade settlements.

Industry voices have already flagged enforcement concerns over the coming limits. Jan3 CEO Samson Mow has said P2P trading is more resilient to regulatory crackdowns than centralized platforms, and SatoshiLabs executive Stepan Uherik has noted that any wallet app ban would leave hardware and desktop wallets unaffected, signaling that the central bank’s July 2027 perimeter will still face technical edges well after the rule takes hold.