Russia's first crypto register entries concern identified organisations and specific activities, rather than every website displaying their brands. On October 6, 2026, the Bank of Russia announced five digital depositories and four organisations conducting digital currency exchange activities. Those are the announcement's historical counts, not a current market directory.
The role matters as much as the company name
The announcement describes depositories as recording and transferring assets and providing access to address identifiers. The exchange organisations buy and sell on their own behalf and account outside organised trading. A service offering custody and a service quoting a purchase are therefore making different claims about what they do.
Admission arrangements are also separate from an individual order. The regulator's September explanation covers entry procedures, required documents and maintenance of the registers; the relevant admission acts took effect on October 5. None of that tells you which network a particular deposit screen accepts today. Treat legal identity and transfer instructions as two checks that both need answers.
A small worksheet for an unusually broad claim
The following worksheet is an editorial way to test a claim such as ‘our group is registered’. It is not an official form, a rating of a provider or a certification that a transaction is lawful for a particular person.
| Claim in front of you | Evidence to request or open | Question left unanswered |
|---|---|---|
| A familiar brand appears in a headline | Legal entity named in your service agreement | Is that the organisation handling this order? |
| An organisation is on a register | Correct activity, entity identifiers and current record | Does the proposed service fall within that activity? |
| A screenshot shows an entry | The regulator's own dated register or lookup result | Has the information changed since the screenshot? |
| Support sends deposit instructions | Authenticated order and supported asset/network details | Do these instructions belong to this transaction? |
For example, suppose a fictional group uses one brand for an exchange company and a separate software company. A valid record for the exchange company cannot identify the software company as your counterparty. Ask which legal person owes performance under your agreement. Do not resolve the discrepancy by matching only a logo, a similar trading name or an address copied into a chat.
How to perform a reproducible identity check
The Bank of Russia's financial-market participant service supports searches using identifiers including a company name, INN tax identifier and OGRN registration number. A number is useful when a brand has several spellings. This article has not conducted an individual provider search or certified an entry for KOT.CASH.
- Take the legal name and identifiers from the proposed agreement or official service documents, before making a transfer.
- Open the regulator's site yourself and select the relevant register; avoid treating a forwarded image as the underlying record.
- Match the identifiers, then read the activity and status. A name resemblance alone leaves the identity unresolved.
- Record the source address and the date of the information. Keep your own check date separately from the announcement date.
- Ask the provider to explain any mismatch in writing. Leave the transaction unsubmitted while the counterparty remains unclear.
If a lookup returns nothing, first check the spelling, identifiers and register selected. Do not transform an unsuccessful search into a positive approval. Equally, an unresolved search is not enough for this article to accuse a named company of an offence: the applicable activity and facts still need examination.
Registration is not a network-selection tool
Even after identity is resolved, a recipient needs the correct asset and network. Use the swap interface to review the order you are actually considering and read how an exchange works. Those pages do not establish Russian admission status. The AML policy is another separate document: no-account access should not be read as exemption from compliance checks.
This news is not a recommendation to pay for goods in cryptocurrency in Russia. The regulator's explanation of the reform states that domestic cryptocurrency payments remain prohibited. Nor does the existence of a Russian entry determine eligibility in another country; readers abroad need to check their own applicable rules and the actual service terms.
What to recheck after this announcement
Start from the regulator's crypto-market hub, which links the separate registers and distinguishes adopted documents from drafts and acts awaiting registration. Before a later transaction, revisit the relevant record and the effective requirements. A saved October headline explains when the first entries appeared; it cannot keep a company's status or a product's availability current for you.
FAQ
Do the Bank of Russia crypto rules identify the company behind every brand?
A brand can be used in documents belonging to different legal entities. Match the counterparty's identifiers and activity against the relevant current regulator record rather than relying on the brand alone.
Is a crypto exchange license claim the same as a checked register entry?
A marketing label is not the underlying evidence of admission. Open the regulator's source and check which entity and activity it actually covers before accepting the claim.
Do Bank of Russia crypto regulations settle which network my recipient accepts?
An entity check does not supply the asset and network details for an individual order. Resolve those instructions with the authenticated recipient service, without inferring them from regulatory status.