Federal Law No. 258-FZ is Russia’s cross-sector framework for experimental legal regimes in digital and technological innovation. Signed on July 31, 2020, it has been in force since January 28, 2021. As of June 22, 2026, the operative consolidated text incorporates amendments through July 31, 2025. Its current title refers to digital and technological innovations following a 2024 expansion of the original title. The law creates temporary special regulation; it does not itself provide a general authorization to issue, trade, or use cryptoassets.
What Federal Law No. 258-FZ does
The law defines an experimental legal regime as special regulation applied to designated participants for a specified period and, ordinarily, within a specified territory. The rules may differ from generally applicable regulation, but departures must be bounded and described in the regime’s program. Where a program would disapply or alter a federal statute, another federal law must expressly permit that result.
The framework covers medicine, transport, agriculture, the financial market, remote commerce, construction, public services and oversight, industry, and high-technology production. Its objectives include testing new forms of economic activity, improving services, supporting competition, evaluating regulatory change, and creating conditions for innovation.
How an experimental legal regime is established
An initiative may be advanced by an eligible public authority, Russian legal entity, or individual entrepreneur. A private-sector initiator must satisfy statutory conditions and submit a proposal with a draft program. The authorized body checks the filing and circulates a qualifying proposal for views from the relevant regulator, business-community organization, affected regional authorities, and other agencies whose powers are engaged.
The Russian Government ordinarily establishes a regime and approves its program. For the financial-market track, that authority belongs to the Bank of Russia. A program must identify its duration, participants, territorial reach where applicable, departures from general rules, risk controls, supervision, performance measures, and disclosures. Financial-market programs must also address money-laundering and terrorist-financing risks, protected information, information security, and the interests of investors, creditors, depositors, policyholders, and other protected persons. Transaction, asset, counterparty, and participant limits may be imposed.
Crypto and digital-currency relevance
Federal Law No. 258-FZ became directly relevant to crypto through Federal Law No. 223-FZ of August 8, 2024, effective September 1, 2024. That law enabled Bank of Russia-supervised experimental regimes for digital-currency operations in foreign-trade activity and for organized trading in digital currency. A program can prescribe how digital currency may be used in covered cross-border contracts, define the roles of residents, non-residents, and currency-control bodies, and set rules for admission to organized trading.
This structure is narrower than a market-wide crypto license. Permissions and restrictions depend on the enabling statutes, the Bank of Russia act establishing a regime, and its approved program. Federal Law No. 258-FZ should therefore be read alongside Russia’s separate laws on digital financial assets, digital currency, currency control, organized trading, and the national payment system.
Safeguards, duration, and accountability
The statute emphasizes constitutional rights, safety, transparency, equal treatment of applicants, voluntary participation, and minimal departure from general regulation. Civil-law compensation remains available for harm caused during a regime, including harm from lawful participant conduct, and regime status does not itself create tax benefits. Public information, participant disclosures, monitoring, and effectiveness reviews support oversight and possible regulatory reform.
Under the text currently in force, a regime’s initial duration may not exceed three years, although extensions are available and programs may assign different participation periods to different participants.
Status and pending 2026 amendment
Federal Law No. 523-FZ broadened the title and scope in December 2024, and Federal Law No. 336-FZ supplied the latest operative amendments on July 31, 2025. Bill No. 1158700-8 passed the State Duma on June 10, 2026 and was approved by the Federation Council on June 17. It would allow regimes where general regulation is absent, raise the maximum term from three to five years, and permit a participant to leave on request. As of June 22, 2026, no official publication was located, so this profile treats those changes as approved by parliament but not yet operative.