Experts assessed the effectiveness of fines for cryptocurrency payments in the Russian Federation.

The Russian authorities plan to introduce fines for the payment of goods and services with cryptocurrency starting from 2026. The draft law will be reviewed in the State Duma this fall, said Anatoly Aksakov, head of the committee on the financial market, in a comment to "Izvestia".

According to him, fines for individuals will range from 100,000 to 200,000 rubles, and for legal entities — from 700,000 to 1 million rubles. The cryptocurrency used for payments will be confiscated.

The main goal of the initiative is to combat shadow payments. As noted by Irina Kuyantseva, an advisor in corporate law and M&A at BGP Litigation, since 2021, part of such payments has moved into the gray area: some are circumventing sanctions using digital assets in cross-border transactions.

"This new bill on fines is precisely aimed at this hidden practice. The state intends to close the loophole where there is a ban, but no direct responsibility for its violation, making such operations economically risky," she stated.

ForkLog surveyed experts and found out who is threatened with fines and why they will not solve the problem of shadow payments.

Who is really at risk of getting fined

The founder of GMT Legal, Andrey Tugarin, explained that the ban on cryptocurrency payments has been in effect since 2021 under 259-FZ. The restriction applies to digital currencies like Bitcoin but not to stablecoins.

"The essence of the ban is that digital currency cannot be accepted as payment for the transfer of goods, performance of works or services," he noted.

First of all, the new measures will affect entrepreneurs — legal entities and individual entrepreneurs. According to Tugarin, for them, receiving payment in cryptocurrency for goods or services will definitely be considered a violation. Ordinary users will find themselves in a more ambiguous situation.

"If an individual does not have a clear and understandable answer to the question of where the cryptocurrency came from, as a result of which rubles appeared in their settlement account, then such individuals may potentially be subject to a fine," emphasized the expert.

He added that if a user exchanged bitcoin for rubles through a P2P platform and received the money in their bank account, the bank, and subsequently government authorities, may request confirmation of the source of the funds. Without proof of the legality of the transaction, for example, that the cryptocurrency was obtained as a result of investment rather than the sale of services, a fine may be imposed.

Receiving a salary in cryptocurrency also comes with risks. According to Tugarin, payment for labor in Russia is only possible in rubles.

"If it comes to receiving a salary in bitcoin, for example, then such individuals will be directly subject to the fine," he clarified.

For stablecoins like USDT, there may be legal workarounds when dealing with foreign employers. However, judicial practice in the Russian Federation is "very varied and sometimes contradictory," noted the lawyer.

The founder of BitOK, Dmitry Machikhin, clarified in a comment to ForkLog that those who "cannot turn this process into a legal system" should be worried. For example, without legalizing income in a "stablecoin" through declarations or contracts with a foreign employer, an individual may face audits and fines.

Bans will not solve the problem of shadow payments

Experts agree that fines are ineffective in practice. The state physically cannot track all P2P transfers or cash transactions, emphasized lawyer and founder of Cartesius, Ignat Likhunov.

"This does not strengthen the authority of the power, but on the contrary — demonstrates its impotence before reality," he noted.

The specialist added that converting digital assets into rubles through P2P platforms or exchanges nullifies the ban. A user can exchange bitcoin for rubles through a Telegram bot or an unregulated platform and use them for transactions without attracting attention.

Tugarin agreed that controlling such operations would be difficult. According to him, the state will most likely do this through banks. In most cases, they only need to understand the source of the funds. This method allows identifying rubles obtained from cryptocurrency exchanges, but not the P2P transfers themselves.

"There are plenty of examples of banks' requests regarding individuals involved in the buying and selling of cryptocurrency today," he noted.

Machikhin added that control is complicated by the lack of clear distribution of powers between government agencies:

"As always, no one will respond until the issue of cryptocurrency authority between Rosfinmonitoring, the Central Bank, and the Federal Tax Service is clearly resolved."

He mentioned the service "Transparent Blockchain," for the development of which more than 2 billion rubles have been spent since 2016. However, it is not functioning yet, which reduces the effectiveness of monitoring, Mchihin added.

In Russia, the date for connecting banks to the service for analyzing crypto transactions was announced.

Let us remind you that on July 18, Sber proposed to transfer the storage of bitcoins under the control of banks.