Russia Sees 129 Billion Dollars in Crypto Escape State Control Each Year

The cryptocurrency market in Russia is experiencing such momentum that it now exceeds the supervisory capacities of traditional financial institutions. According to government estimates, massive financial volumes transit daily through virtual currencies, far from tax radars. Faced with this parallel economy, Russian authorities, from the Ministry of Finance to the central bank, agree on the urgency to integrate these flows into the legal circuit. The equivalent of 129 billion dollars escapes state control every year, circulating freely in a gray area.

A record trading volume outside the regulatory framework

The scale of adoption of cryptocurrencies by Russian citizens is now precisely quantified. In a recent speech, Ivan Chebeskov, Deputy Minister of Finance, emphasized that this activity is no longer limited to a niche but involves millions of individuals for savings and payments.

The Ministry estimates the daily transaction volume at approximately 50 billion rubles (around 648 million dollars). Over a year, this amount exceeds 10 trillion rubles, about 129.4 billion dollars.

It is this colossal money supply that is currently operating “outside the regulatory framework,” depriving the administration of visibility on capital flows, according to Chebeskov, who stated:

We have always stated that millions of citizens participate in this activity, representing thousands of billions of rubles in usage and savings. As an example, the daily volume of cryptocurrency transactions in our country amounts to about 50 billion rubles. This represents a trading volume of more than 10,000 billion rubles per year, which currently takes place outside the regulatory framework, beyond our control.

Data from Rosfinmonitoring’s “Transparent Blockchain” service estimate, for example, that the average monthly holdings of Russians on unregulated international exchange platforms amount to 933 billion rubles according to the same report.

Towards integration of cryptocurrencies into the existing financial infrastructure

To regain control over these funds, the Bank of Russia and the government have developed a legalization strategy through a regulation project that was presented at the end of 2025, aiming for legislative adoption during the spring session of the State Duma.

The approach favored by Vladimir Chistyukhin, First Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank, is to rely on the existing infrastructure. Cryptocurrency transactions in Russia should therefore be authorized through traditional brokers and exchanges, without requiring separate licenses for already established players.

The market will be open to both qualified and non-qualified investors under certain protection conditions. The goal, according to Chistyukhin, is to allow operators to legalize this segment by complying with compliance requirements and being exposed to sanctions in case of illicit activities.

Economic stakes for the Moscow Exchange facing the gray market

Beyond surveillance, the issue is also competitive. Currently, the value generated by Russian traders mostly benefits foreign structures. Sergei Shvetsov, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Moscow Exchange, highlighted a considerable lost gain by stating:

Today, a significant portion of cryptocurrency transactions by Russian citizens escapes regulated circuits, generating about 50 billion dollars in annual commissions, nearly 15 billion of which benefit gray or offshore platforms. The Moscow Exchange aims to reintegrate a portion of these flows into the legal framework, which could significantly multiply its current revenues of about 1 billion dollars per year.

Russian citizens pay about 15 billion dollars in annual fees to international exchange platforms. These commissions, often captured by offshore entities, represent “left-behind” funds by the national economy.

In comparison, the profits of the Moscow Exchange amount to about one billion dollars per year. The ambition of Russian stock markets is therefore to reintegrate these flows into the legal framework to compete with the parallel market and capture a share of this profitability.

Towards a regulated adoption of decentralized finance?

The political will to structure the Russian cryptocurrency market could transform the country’s economic landscape as early as this spring. If the timetable is respected, traditional finance will gradually absorb part of the flows.

National institutions, such as the Moscow Exchange, will need to offer a competitive and seamless offering to convince users to leave gray platforms and join the supervised infrastructures of decentralized finance.