Russia Backs Digital Currency and Digital Rights Bill; BTC, ETH and SOL Likely to Qualify for Trading

Russia has approved a draft Digital Currency and Digital Rights Bill that would give the Central Bank of Russia authority to review and greenlight digital assets allowed to circulate domestically, ChainThink reported on March 24, citing Cryptopolitan. Under the proposed rules, a cryptocurrency would need to meet three listing thresholds: an average market capitalization above 5 trillion rubles (about $60 billion) over the past two years, daily trading volume of at least 1 trillion rubles (about $12 billion), and a public trading track record of at least five years. Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana are among the major assets that satisfy the criteria. The bill would also require privacy-focused tokens to be blacklisted, banning both trading and holding. Retail investors would face an annual investment cap of roughly $4,000. Penalties are outlined for noncompliance: cryptocurrency exchanges could be fined up to 1 million rubles, mining companies up to 2.5 million rubles, and large-scale illegal mining could carry prison terms of up to five years. The legislation must complete parliamentary review by July 1, 2026.