Federal Law No. 259-FZ on Digital Financial Assets, Digital Currency and Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation is a central part of Russia’s framework for digital financial assets, regulated issuance platforms, digital currency and, after later amendments, crypto mining. Signed on July 31, 2020, its main provisions entered into force on January 1, 2021. As of June 22, 2026, it remains in force in a consolidated text amended through December 15, 2025 and qualified by Constitutional Court Decision No. 2-P of January 20, 2026.
The statute separates “digital financial assets” from “digital currency.” DFAs are legally defined digital rights issued, recorded and transferred through a distributed-ledger or other information system. Digital currency is defined separately as electronic data that may be offered or accepted as payment or investment, is not a Russian, foreign or international monetary unit, and generally has no person obligated to each holder. The law therefore does not treat every cryptoasset or token as the same legal instrument.
What Federal Law No. 259-FZ covers
DFAs may embody monetary claims, rights connected with equity securities, participation rights in a non-public joint-stock company, or a claim for delivery of equity securities. A December 2025 amendment also created a debt-DFA category limited to monetary claims. Those instruments must be fully paid for in money before issuance, and the represented obligations must be performed through monetary payment.
The law regulates DFA issuance, recordkeeping and circulation; information-system and exchange operators; digital-currency circulation; mining; mining pools; and mining-infrastructure operators. Securities, anti-money-laundering, tax, foreign-exchange and other legislation may apply alongside it.
DFA issuance and regulated market infrastructure
An issuer must adopt an electronically signed issuance decision describing the issuer and platform operator, represented rights, quantity or maximum issue amount, acquisition price or pricing method, payment terms, placement dates and other material conditions. DFA rights arise and transfer through records in the relevant information system.
The Bank of Russia maintains separate registers for information-system and DFA exchange operators. An information-system operator must be a Russian legal entity entered in the applicable register. Exchange operators facilitate DFA transactions and may include eligible Russian credit institutions, trading organizers and other registered organizations. The Bank may restrict specified DFA categories to qualified investors or limit acquisitions by non-qualified investors.
Payments, foreign trade and digital currency
DFAs generally may not be accepted as payment or other consideration for goods, work or services. Since March 2024, an exception permits DFAs as consideration under qualifying foreign-trade contracts between residents and non-residents. Other exceptions require a federal-law basis.
Article 14 separately restricts Russian-law entities, Russian establishments of foreign entities, and individuals meeting the statute’s 183-day presence test from accepting digital currency for goods, work or services, apart from specified issuance and mining rewards. It also restricts information offering or soliciting such payment. A 2024 amendment permits special rules under a Bank of Russia-approved experimental legal regime without replacing the general statutory restrictions.
Crypto mining registration and reporting
Mining provisions added in 2024 define mining, mining pools, mining infrastructure and identifier addresses. Russian companies and individual entrepreneurs may mine after inclusion in the Federal Tax Service register. Russian citizens who are not individual entrepreneurs may mine without registration only within government-set energy limits. Miners must report mined digital currency and relevant identifier addresses, while infrastructure operators are subject to a separate register. The government may restrict mining in designated regions or territories.
Current status and the 2026 Constitutional Court ruling
On January 20, 2026, the Constitutional Court qualified Article 14(6), which tied judicial protection of digital-currency claims to prescribed reporting. The court upheld that condition for lawful digital currency obtained through mining, but found it unconstitutional insofar as it blocked claims based on lawful non-mining acquisition and use. Pending legislative amendments, courts may not deny protection on that basis where a claimant supplies information showing lawful acquisition and use. The ruling took immediate effect.
This profile is a legal-reference summary, not legal, tax, investment or compliance advice. Current regulator rules, experimental-regime terms, regional mining restrictions and later amendments should be checked for any particular activity.