Russia’s Central Bank has added Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tether (USDT) to its list of cryptocurrencies approved for trading on exchanges, the regulator said in a statement.
Nonqualified investors will have access only to the most liquid cryptocurrencies, with an annual cap of 300,000 rubles’ worth of those assets per intermediary — a broker, a crypto exchanger, or an asset manager.
Qualified investors, by contrast, will be able to buy any cryptocurrency traded on the exchanges without restriction.
Before making a trade, all investors must pass a test and review the risks of crypto investing.
In July, the State Duma passed a law legalizing the circulation of cryptocurrency in Russia. It set rules for using cryptocurrencies and capped the size of nonqualified investors’ portfolios. At the time, the Central Bank clarified that only Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the stablecoin USDT met the criteria for exchange trading.
