A shortlist of just three assets is what Russia’s central bank is prepared to open to retail investors on regulated exchanges: bitcoin, ether and USDT. Nothing else is on it. Tether's dollar-linked token is the sole stablecoin to survive the initial cut.
Under the draft rules, non-qualified investors may buy no more than 300,000 rubles — roughly $3,600 — of crypto per year at any one intermediary. Investors classified as qualified are exempt from the ceiling entirely.
The cap has a gap built into the wording
Look closely at how the limit is framed and the 300,000-ruble figure means something different than it first appears. The ceiling attaches to each intermediary rather than to an investor’s purchases in aggregate.
An investor holding accounts across multiple brokers or exchanges could therefore stack allowances and build total exposure well beyond what the headline figure implies. Deliberate design or drafting artifact, the language as written allows it.
What the July legislation left blank
The whitelist plugs a gap. July’s legislation cleared the way for regulated crypto trading beginning Sept. 1, yet it stopped short of naming the assets retail investors would be permitted to buy.
These three names supply that missing answer. Anything not on the list remains unavailable to non-qualified investors on regulated venues.
Trading isn’t spending
One element stays unchanged: crypto payments within Russia are still banned. Acquiring bitcoin via a regulated intermediary is permitted; using it to pay for something is not.
That distinction carries more weight than the asset menu itself. A regulated venue offering three tokens amounts to a controlled investment channel rather than a parallel payment rail, and the draft rules are written to preserve exactly that.
Why the USDT choice stands out
USDT is the notable name among the trio. Singling out one dollar-linked stablecoin for the initial list hands Tether a foothold inside Russia’s regulated perimeter that no rival enjoys.
At the time the draft was prepared, bitcoin traded at $64,185.98 and ether at $1,912.21. Those are the two assets a Russian retail investor will be permitted to hold on a regulated exchange — accompanied by a dollar proxy that cannot be spent at home — capped at 300,000 rubles annually per intermediary, from Sept. 1 onward.