I just noticed that Russia is pushing a new digital currency regulatory framework, which is actually worth paying attention to.

According to recent reports, the Bank of Russia is drafting a bill called “Digital Currencies and Digital Rights.” The core idea is that they want to set thresholds for cryptocurrency trading in Russia. It’s not that every coin can be traded, but that digital currencies must meet strict scale requirements—average market capitalization of over 5 trillion rubles (about $6 billion), and average daily trading volume over 1 trillion rubles (about $12 billion) in the past two years.

As a result, only Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana currently meet the criteria. I looked at the latest market data: Bitcoin’s market cap is already over $1.34 trillion, Ethereum over $24.7 billion, and Solana also over $4.5 billion—well above that $6 billion threshold. This suggests that Russia’s standard is actually filtering for truly mainstream digital currencies.

What’s interesting is that the bill also mentions that privacy coins may be banned, which is a rather tough stance. In addition, they’ve set an annual trading limit for retail investors of $4,000 and below—clearly to control risk. The promotion goal of the entire framework is to be completed by July 1.

From a regulatory perspective, this isn’t about banning digital currencies, but about regulating the trading order of digital currencies. This approach isn’t particularly aggressive compared with global regulatory trends; many countries are exploring similar ideas. For truly large-scale crypto projects, this kind of standardization could actually be a positive, because it raises the entry barriers and improves market compliance. It feels like other countries may follow suit with similar policy frameworks next.