Russia Plans to Ban Foreign Cryptocurrency Exchanges in Summer 2026 to Boost Local Platforms

BlockBeats News, February 19th, according to FinanceFeeds, Russia plans to start blocking foreign cryptocurrency exchange websites in the summer of 2026 to steer crypto activity towards local licensed platforms, reduce capital outflow, and strengthen supervision. This move is based on new legislation expected to advance in the spring and will involve technical filtering by Roskomnadzor; Russian participants conduct approximately 500 billion rubles in daily crypto transactions, with the majority taking place overseas.

Sergey Shvetsov, Chairman of the Moscow Exchange Supervisory Board, stated that Russian traders pay around $15 billion in commissions annually to global exchanges, and local platforms aim to compete for this market. Experts point out that completely blocking overseas platforms will be challenging and may lead activities to shift to opaque channels.