Bank of Russia opens three crypto registers on 5 October
Three Bank of Russia registers open on 5 October 2026: exchangers, digital depositories and information-system operators. A filing is not approval to trade.
The Bank of Russia opens applications to three crypto-market registers on 5 October 2026, and the opening is not an approval to trade. From that Monday a firm may ask to be entered as an organisation that exchanges digital currencies, as a digital depository, or as an operator of an information system that issues digital financial rights. The form in the regulator’s personal account goes live the same day. Capital, not the calendar, separates the seats: own funds of ₽15 million for an exchange organisation, and ₽250 million for a settlement digital depository.
That is wider than an exchange-and-depository pair. In a notice dated 24 September 2026, the Bank of Russia said all three must be on the relevant registers. A regulation sets qualification requirements for managers and certain officers, the admission documents and the decision procedure, with a simplified route for existing firms. An ordinance covers how the Bank of Russia keeps, updates and publishes the registers. Both were registered with the Ministry of Justice and, in the regulator’s words, come into force from 5 October 2026.
The exchange-organisation page does not describe an organised-trading venue. The firm buys and sells digital currencies as principal, off organised trading. A digital depository accounts for and transfers digital currencies and digital rights, and may give access to the identifier addresses where they are recorded. Both must be a Russian company and on the register the Bank of Russia keeps before they operate. The pages tie that right to Federal Law No. 282-FZ of 4 August 2026 and to Regulation No. 890-P of 27 August 2026.
Other depository floors are ₽100 million, where the firm gives access to an identifier address, accounts for assets on addresses it administers, or holds an account at a foreign organisation that records and transfers digital currencies, and ₽50 million otherwise. On 27 July 2026 the Bank of Russia had already published that ₽50 million to ₽250 million range. Primary and backup systems for both types of firm must sit inside Russia.
Two clocks, and who can skip the queue
An ordinary review lasts 30 working days for an exchange organisation, from the day the last document arrives, and 60 working days for a digital depository, after that day. The applicant is told within three working days of the decision. A file sent outside the personal account is not examined. The clock starts on a complete electronic file, not on 5 October, and the outcome can be a refusal.
For named incumbents the review is due the next working day. Credit institutions, brokers, and firms that on 1 September 2026 were in an experimental legal regime as an authorised organisation or a liquidity provider may use that route into the exchange register until 1 September 2027. The same end-date, for the depository register, covers experimental-regime authorised organisations and operators of information systems that issue digital financial assets. A bank already inside the perimeter can be entered the working day after a complete notification. A new depository cannot.
At the Moscow Financial Forum on 21 September 2026, First Deputy Governor Vladimir Chistyukhin told Interfax, in remarks translated here from the Russian: “The first-line acts, including the acts on the registers and the acts on qualification requirements: only after they are adopted, that is, actually published and enter into force, will it be possible to file applications.” He told RBC the same day it was “quite possible” a first register entry would come before year-end if the ministry registered the documents in time. A full launch, he said, still needed 27 acts.
Nothing in these acts names a coin a client may buy. On 21 July 2026 the Bank of Russia said non-qualified investors may buy the most liquid cryptocurrencies for not more than ₽300,000 a year through one intermediary after a test. Domestic cryptocurrency payments stay prohibited. Firms have until 1 July 2027 to obtain permissions, which is not the 1 September 2027 notification window. An 11 August 2026 draft, open for comment through 24 August, named Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Tether (USDT) for public exchange trading. That draft does not take effect on 5 October.
A tokenisation permission can stop short of a trading venue, and a register entry is not a conduct permission. Deutsche Bank’s crypto custody case turns on the same point: the decision, not the form. The digital-assets desk will be reading the registers the Bank of Russia publishes.
This article is informational analysis only and is not financial, investment, or trading advice. Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile and can lose substantial value rapidly. Past performance and historical patterns do not guarantee future results. Do your own research and consult a regulated financial adviser before making any investment decision.
Reporting by Karthik Subramanian. Filed 2 October 2026, 14:51 GMT.
Digital Assets Correspondent
Karthik Subramanian is a founder, writer, and technology consultant with nine years in the crypto ecosystem.
