PANews reported on November 26th that, according to Cryptopolitan, Russian Deputy Finance Minister Ivan Chebeskov revealed that the Russian Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank are planning to abolish the current strict regulations limiting participation in the cryptocurrency market to "highly qualified" investors, and intend to establish a tiered access mechanism to broaden the scope of legitimate investors. Current regulations require individual investors to hold at least 100 million rubles in bank deposits and securities, and to have verifiable income exceeding 50 million rubles in the past year to obtain "highly qualified" certification. Chebeskov stated that regulators have reached a basic consensus on relaxing restrictions, and will set differentiated access standards for unqualified, qualified, and highly qualified investors in the future.
Although the country's central bank still opposes the free circulation of cryptocurrencies within the country, it has gradually relaxed its policies this year: in March, it proposed allowing the use of cryptocurrencies for cross-border settlements under an "experimental legal regime," and in May, it approved opening up crypto derivatives to highly qualified investors.


