The Bank of Russia has published draft rules for the country’s first formal framework for “organized trading” in digital assets and digital rights, proposing capital, recordkeeping and pricing standards for regulated trading venues and a new class of digital depositories.
The proposal would place the infrastructure around approved digital-asset transactions under rules resembling those already applied to securities-market institutions. Trading platforms would need formal internal procedures, while depositories would maintain official records of cryptocurrencies and digital rights held through the system.
The draft follows a cryptocurrency market bill approved by the State Duma last week. That bill would provide a legal basis for regulated retail cryptocurrency trading and is expected to take effect in September if it completes the legislative process and is enacted.
The central bank’s consultation marks a move from legislative authorization toward the operational rules that would determine which institutions can run the market, how transactions are recorded and how platforms establish reference prices.
Trading venues would calculate market prices
Under the Bank of Russia’s proposal, operators of organized trading platforms would be required to set out their procedures in internal rulebooks. Those rules would govern the process for conducting transactions in digital assets and digital rights on each venue.
Platforms would also calculate market prices and weighted average prices for assets traded through their systems. A weighted average price reflects not only the prices at which trades occur but also the volume associated with each transaction, reducing the influence of very small trades on the quoted market level.
That requirement could give regulated platforms a clearer basis for pricing, settlement and reporting than fragmented over-the-counter transactions. It would also create a defined source of transaction data for participants operating within the approved market.
The draft links those pricing obligations to recordkeeping duties. Trading venues would need to preserve information related to transactions carried out on their platforms, making the transaction trail a central feature of the proposed system rather than an administrative afterthought.
New digital depositories would hold transaction records
A major element of the proposal is the creation of digital depositories, institutions that would record cryptocurrency and digital-right holdings and maintain related account information.
The required equity capital for these depositories would range from 50 million rubles, about $640,860, to 250 million rubles, about $3.2 million, according to the Bank of Russia’s draft. The amount would depend on the activities performed by the institution.
Depositories working with open distributed ledgers would face the lower 50 million-ruble threshold. Entities providing post-trade settlement services would need 250 million rubles in equity, placing a substantially higher financial barrier around firms responsible for completing transactions after a trade is made.
The capital must consist of liquid assets. Where financial assets are used to meet the requirement, they would need to meet high credit-quality standards. The approach is intended to ensure that a depository can continue operating and maintaining records during market or operational stress, rather than relying on difficult-to-sell or low-quality holdings.
Comparable requirements would apply to electronic platform operators. These functions would be assigned to information-system operators that settle transactions involving digital financial assets through nominal accounts, which hold funds for clients under a designated account structure.
Recordkeeping would extend across accounts and assets
The Bank of Russia’s draft sets rules for recording digital currencies and digital rights, opening and maintaining digital accounts, and collecting information about account holders, system participants and recorded assets.
Those requirements would give depositories a role similar to that of recordkeeping institutions in conventional financial markets. The central bank said digital depositories would operate according to principles used by securities depositories, while the Bank of Russia would maintain the official register of approved entities.
The structure places particular weight on institutional controls. A platform’s ability to host transactions would be tied not only to its technology but also to documented procedures, capital resources and its capacity to preserve accurate records of holdings and transfers.
For market participants, that could mean a more defined distinction between activity conducted on a regulated Russian platform and activity occurring outside the future organized-trading framework. The proposal focuses on the institutions that would support the market rather than establishing a universal rulebook for every digital asset or wallet arrangement.
Draft rules begin the implementation phase
The regulations have been published for regulatory impact assessment, a stage that allows the Bank of Russia to gather feedback before adopting final rules. The draft therefore does not yet establish binding obligations for platform operators or depositories.
Its timing nevertheless connects directly with the State Duma’s advancing crypto market legislation. The bill would create the legal foundation for regulated retail trading, while the central bank’s proposal begins to define the financial-market infrastructure required to administer it.
The combined approach would give Russia a framework built around licensed venues, formal price calculation, capitalized recordkeepers and centralized regulatory oversight. Whether that framework is in place by the anticipated September start of the legislation will depend on the bill’s final enactment and the central bank’s completion of the rulemaking process.
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