Russia's Crypto Regulation Faces Reality Check as DeFi Grows
Russia's upcoming crypto regulation may struggle to achieve its goals, according to a recent analysis by the OSW Centre for Eastern Studies. The think tank argues that entities Moscow wants to regulate have no intention of staying within the regulatory perimeter.
The draft law 'On Digital Currency and Digital Rights' proposes licensing trading platforms and custodians while banning domestic crypto payments. However, non-custodial wallets are a particular headache, as users hold their own keys on decentralized protocols, bypassing licensed intermediaries.
Bitcoin remains the dominant asset in both holdings and mining, with Russia ranking second globally in Bitcoin mining as of 2025. Tether's USDT is widely used as a trading and settlement vehicle, while A7A5, the first rouble-pegged stablecoin, saw trading volumes exceed $120 billion by early 2026.
The growth of A7A5 represents a real-world test case for national-currency stablecoins operating at scale outside Western regulatory frameworks. As Russia's DeFi usage surges eightfold, the competitive dynamics between centralized exchanges seeking Russian licenses and decentralized protocols ignoring them entirely will be worth tracking through the autumn implementation timeline.