Maozi is playing this hand brilliantly—talking about not allowing non-custodial wallets, but in practice shutting off all withdrawal routes. If retail investors want to exit, they can only go through KYC custodial services, and USDT also has extra taxes on top of that. This isn’t regulation at all; it’s clearly a targeted hunt.

According to Bits Media, the Russian Ministry of Finance stated that although market participants are calling for non-custodial wallets to be incorporated into the "legal system," the Ministry is currently only considering opening them to a very limited number of specific legal entities after enforcement practices are established, through legal experiments or pilot mechanisms, and will definitely not open them to retail investors. The Ministry emphasized that while Russia does not plan to ban holding non-custodial wallets, when withdrawing assets from domestic legitimate crypto custody institutions and exchanges, withdrawals will only be allowed to custodial wallets with mandatory identity verification (KYC), and transfers from Russian custody wallets to overseas non-custodial wallets are strictly prohibited. Additionally, the draft law "Digital Currencies and Digital Rights," which is preparing for a second review, may introduce new provisions, including imposing additional fees or restrictions on certain crypto activities, such as stablecoin USDT.