In a most recent development, the Bank of Russia has greenlighted financial institutions to offer certain crypto-based financial instruments to accredited investors. Following this, banks in Russia are now free to provide qualified investors with a range of crypto-based services, including derivatives and securities.
On May 28, 2025 Russian Central Bank said that banks are now free to offer a wider range of services to qualified investors within the territory.
Yet the Russian Bank emphasised that the offered product must not involve the ‘actual delivery of the cryptocurrencies.”
Is Russia expanding its dominance in the crypto market?
First step towards backing crypto, Russia has legalised Bitcoin mining in November 2024, recognising it as a legitimate economic activity, with this move, a surge in sales of industrial mining equipment has been reported in the last quarter of 2024.
This year, the Russian Ministry of Justice drafted a bill classifying digital currencies as property, enabling their use in the legal framework.
“A draft law has been developed by the Ministry of Justice that classifies digital currency as property for seizure and subsequent confiscation. At the same time, it is proposed to establish specific requirements aimed at ensuring its preservation, taking into account the characteristics of the particular [digital] currency, the investigator will be able to seize the physical medium containing the access codes or petition the court to impose a ban on transactions.”
It is said that the crypto user base in Russia is expected to grow at 17% and is expected to reach roughly 25 million users by 2025, and at the same time, the market is projected to reach $1.587 billion in value.
To strengthen its position in the global crypto market, Russia is leveraging local exchanges and is also reportedly using stablecoins like USDT, Bitcoin, and Ethereum that are being used in oil trade with countries like China and India, which accounted for $192 billion in trade in 2024.
On the other hand, Russia is also exploring ways to launch its in-house cryptocurrency, and the Russian Central Bank recognized Bitcoin as the best-performing asset in its May 2025 financial report, indicating that people are beginning to adopt crypto as a hedge against economic uncertainty.
Russia is using cryptocurrency, especially in mining and trading, to evade sanctions and maintain economic resilience.
Banks in Russia like Sberbank, VTB Bank, Alfa Bank, One Safe, Rosbank, and T Bank are some of the prominent players running fastest in crypto-related service offerings.
Crypto market price updates
Until publishing, the crypto market cap was $3.44 trillion with a slight loss of 0.43%, and the trading volume is near $130 billion with a massive surge in the past 24 hours.
The crypto fear and greed index is at 68, indicating surging greed in the market sentiment, with Bitcoin currently exchanging hands at $108,463 with a weekly decline of 2.34%.
Ethereum, the 2nd most prominent crypto, is revolving just below $2,700 at $2,689 with an addition of 1.40%, the market capitalization has reached $324.74 billion with a weekly growth of roughly 3%.
