{"id":230930,"date":"2026-09-22T16:10:27","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T16:10:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/?p=230930"},"modified":"2026-09-22T16:10:27","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T16:10:27","slug":"no-bitcoin-payments-in-russia-but-the-digital-ruble-is-open-for-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/?p=230930","title":{"rendered":"No Bitcoin Payments in Russia \u2014 But the Digital Ruble Is Open for Business"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bitcoin Magazine<\/a><\/p>\n

No Bitcoin Payments in Russia \u2014 But the Digital Ruble Is Open for Business<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

While bitcoin is banned for making payments in Russia, the government is keen on one type of digital money: its own central bank digital currency.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The digital ruble has been available for transactions in the country since September 1, according<\/a> to a Tuesday report from Tass.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Citing a talk given by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, the news agency said that it was all part of \u201cdeveloping a convenient, fast, and independent payment infrastructure\u201d in Russia.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

JUST IN: Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin says:<\/p>\n

“The circulation of cryptocurrencies has also become legal in the country starting from September 1. The relevant law was signed by the president.” <\/p>\n

\u2014 Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) September 22, 2026<\/a>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Russia has been fast regulating digital assets this year. President Vladimir Putin in August signed<\/a> a law regulating the circulation of digital currencies and digital rights in the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The law states that only registered entities can operate as exchanges, and puts limits on the amount of crypto retail investors can use.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But what about Bitcoin?\u00a0<\/p>\n

President Putin in 2024 seemed to praise the OG cryptocurrency. \u201cFor example, Bitcoin, who can ban it? Nobody,\u201d he said<\/a> at a forum at the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd who can prohibit the use of other electronic payment instruments? Nobody, because these are new technologies.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The president has also spoken about how the country has \u201ccompetitive advantages\u201d when it comes to Bitcoin mining due to the abundance of cheap energy in Russia.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Though the Kremlin still has a tight grip on what its citizens can do with it: Retail investors are limited to trading bitcoin and other liquid cryptocurrencies, capped at 300,000 rubles ($3,556) per year, according to the August law. Qualified investors have no restrictions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And using crypto as a form of payment has been illegal in Russia since 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Central bank digital currencies \u2014 or CBDCs \u2014 are a centralized form of digital money, issued by a central bank. Bitcoiners have long criticized the idea of such a product because it can be used by governments to surveil its citizens and ultimately even control their spending.\u00a0<\/p>\n

U.S. President Donald Trump even signed<\/a> an executive order in 2025 prohibiting federal agencies from establishing, issuing, or promoting a CBDC.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But in Russia, a digital ruble is the best way for keeping citizens in check. The Bank of Russia settled early on an architecture that mixes a centralized ledger it controls with distributed-ledger components. The 2021 concept described the preferred model as hybrid \u2014 distributed ledgers combined with centralized components \u2014 and the full technical details have never been published.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bitcoin payments, on the other hand, are being used by companies in international payments to counter Western sanctions, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov admitted<\/a> in 2024.<\/p>\n

This post No Bitcoin Payments in Russia \u2014 But the Digital Ruble Is Open for Business<\/a> first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine<\/a> and is written by Mathew Di Salvo<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bitcoin Magazine No Bitcoin Payments in Russia \u2014 But the Digital Ruble Is Open for Business While bitcoin is banned for making payments in Russia, the government is keen on one type of digital money: its own central bank digital currency.\u00a0 The digital ruble has been available for transactions in the country since September 1, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":230931,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-230930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-discovery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230930"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=230930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/230931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=230930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=230930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=230930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}