• Bank of Russia registered NAUFOR as SRO for crypto exchanges and digital depositories on October 29

• Registered crypto firms must join the SRO within 90 days, setting a January 27, 2027 deadline

• Russia's registry lists 23 crypto exchanges and 8 digital depositories, including VTB and Sberbank

90-Day Membership Window

Russia's central bank on October 29 registered the National Association of Securities Market Participants, known as NAUFOR, as the self-regulatory organization for digital depositories and digital currency exchange operators, a decision confirmed in a post on X. Firms in both categories must join the body within a statutory window. For operators already listed in the central bank's registry, the 90-day clock started the day after the decision, which puts the cutoff at January 27, 2027. Companies registered after that date get the same 90 days, counted from their own registration.

The obligation rests on Articles 17 and 18 of the law “On Digital Currency and Digital Rights,” which took effect on September 1, 2026. Article 18 defines exchange-operator activity as trading digital currency in one's own name and for one's own account outside organized trading, together with services that support price, demand, supply and volume on organized venues, a role adjacent to a market maker. Trading counts as repetitive from two deals in a month with a combined value above 3.5 million rubles. The definition matters because the law treats exchange operators as a narrower category than the centralized crypto exchanges most global traders picture, and it sets separate registration rules for each business. A depository, by the same framework, records holdings of digital currency and digital rights, processes transfers and can give customers access to the address identifiers holding the assets, in practice the control a private key carries.

The central bank disclosed its first registered firms on October 6: five digital depositories and four exchange operators. Those companies have until September 1, 2027 to bring operations into line with the law, a deadline separate from the SRO membership clock. NAUFOR says it will draft business standards for the two categories, check that members observe them and relay industry positions to the regulator during rule revisions. What those standards will contain, and how inspections will run, is not yet set out in the association's public materials.

Two Deadlines, One Registry

The registry behind the deadline lists 23 crypto exchanges and eight digital depositories, among them VTB, Sberbank and units of T-Technologies, the holding company behind T-Bank. The membership rule therefore lands on more than thirty licensed firms at once. The statute behind them, passed by the State Duma in July, requires exchange operators and depositories both to sit in central bank registries and to join a self-regulatory body that writes industry standards, monitors members and represents the sector to the regulator.

NAUFOR is no newcomer to supervision. It has operated since 1996, counts 725 members across brokers, dealers and fund managers, and received SRO status for digital financial asset information system operators on October 8. Its October 29 notice adds that seven such operators have already joined the association, a figure separate from exchange and depository membership. The association says it will help shape standards for digital asset markets and press the central bank on rule changes. That 725-strong membership gives the crypto market a supervisory body built for stocks and bonds rather than a new institution.

The framework also draws hard lines around usage. Domestic payments in cryptocurrency stay banned, so the assets cannot work as everyday money, while a state-supervised channel remains open for cross-border settlements. Retail buyers without qualified-investor status may purchase up to 300,000 rubles a year, roughly $3,800, through a single intermediary, and qualified investors face higher ceilings. One reading of the text even lets a depository restrict transfers to personal wallets. Sberbank has separately received approval to custody Bitcoin. The Moscow Exchange, meanwhile, has reportedly tested cryptocurrency trading with professional market participants and planned a December launch on existing infrastructure with a partner digital depository.

What the Dates Stack Into

The registration converts a statute into a working oversight structure, but the dates now stack up: SRO membership by January 27, 2027, operational compliance by September 1, 2027, both falling on the first nine registrants within a year. Members are joining a body whose rulebook is still being written, since NAUFOR's standards and inspection procedures are not yet public, so the practical compliance cost stays unknown until those documents appear. The narrow exchange-operator definition also points the licensed market toward bank-linked players, and the registry already reflects it: Sberbank, VTB and T-Technologies units hold the slots. Firms outside that shape will need a different route, or none at all.