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Russia's cryptocurrency regulation is taking a new step. Recently, a draft called "Digital Currency and Digital Rights" was introduced, granting the Central Bank of Russia the authority to approve domestic cryptocurrency transactions, but with a strict prerequisite—meeting certain rigorous scale standards.

Specifically, to legally trade in Russia, a digital currency project must have an average market capitalization of over 5 trillion rubles (approximately $60 billion), and its average daily trading volume over the past two years must exceed 1 trillion rubles (about $120 billion). Based on current market conditions, Bitcoin's market cap is $1,351.28 billion, Ethereum's is $248.75 billion, and Solana's is $47.74 billion—all well above the threshold. These are currently the only ones that meet the criteria.

Interestingly, privacy coins are explicitly excluded. This reflects regulatory caution toward privacy transactions. Additionally, retail investors are limited to an annual cap of $4,000. The bill is scheduled to be promoted before July 1, so this regulation could be implemented very soon.

From a market perspective, this layered regulatory approach is quite clear—only cryptocurrencies with sufficient liquidity and scale can enter the market, leaving little room for small projects. This is a positive development for large crypto assets but will likely put pressure on emerging projects trying to expand into the Russian market. It’s worth paying attention to the specific implementation details that follow.