Russia Opens Door to Retail Bitcoin Buying with Caveats

The Bank of Russia has finally opened the door for ordinary Russians to buy Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tether's USDT, capping retail purchases at 300,000 rubles a year per broker.

This marks a reversal from years of warnings by Governor Elvira Nabiullina that cryptocurrency threatened financial stability and pushed for outright bans on trading and mining. President Vladimir Putin signed Federal Law No. 282-FZ on August 4, giving the Bank of Russia the authority to write this kind of directive.

The selection of approved coins was based on market capitalization and average daily trading volume, as well as at least five years of price history on foreign exchanges. This means that younger tokens like XRP were left out due to a lack of long-term liquidity abroad.

Retail buyers will have to pass a risk test before their first trade, but qualified investors will be exempt from the cap entirely. The central bank's per-broker structure may have been written faster than it was thought through, leaving room for potential loopholes to be exploited.