Russia's Crypto Trading Boom Could Reach $46B in First Year

The Russian government's decision to legalize crypto trading is expected to bring in significant revenue. According to Sberbank, regulated trading could reach at least 4 trillion rubles ($46.43 billion) during its first year and slowly increase to around 7.5 trillion rubles ($87.06 billion) by 2029.

Sberbank's Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board, Anatoly Popov, pointed out that expectations for trading volumes during the first year are conservative. He noted that only a small part of crypto activity would move to regulated brokers. The bank projects that around 20% of the daily volume of cryptocurrency transactions in Russia will be traded on exchanges.

The Russian government has set limits on crypto investments, which might limit the growth of regulated trading. Non-qualified investors can only purchase up to 300,000 rubles (about $3,800) in crypto per year through a single licensed intermediary after a risk awareness test. Qualified investors are limited to investing up to 3 million rubles (about $38,000).

Only Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Tether (USDT) have the Bank of Russia's approval for trading on official Russian exchanges, leaving other altcoins outside.