Russia's digital financial assets law (2020)
Russia's first law on digital financial assets created rules for tokenized securities but excluded cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin from legal circulation. Putin signed it in July 2020; it took effect in January 2021.
Russian companies could issue digital financial assets on approved platforms, but Bitcoin and other crypto stayed in a legal gray zone.
The law set the precedent that Russia would regulate digital assets through the Bank of Russia rather than ban them, a path the 2026 framework extends.
The 2026 law is the second stage of the same approach: first tokenized securities, now cryptocurrencies themselves.
