Tens of millions of calls flooding in! Why is the Russian Pension Fund overwhelmed by "crypto anxiety"?

In 2025, the Russian Federation Social Fund (i.e., the Pension Fund) received approximately 37 million public inquiries, among which questions about cryptocurrencies became one of the hottest topics. Citizens eagerly inquired whether pensions could be paid in digital assets and whether mining income should be included in social welfare calculations, forcing officials to repeatedly clarify that national payments are still only made in rubles.

This unprecedented “crypto consultation wave” is no accident; it reflects the explosive growth of Russia’s crypto economy—currently contributing over 16% of the world’s Bitcoin hash rate, with daily mining output worth about 1 billion rubles. Meanwhile, from mid-2024 to mid-2025, on-chain cryptocurrency trading volume reached $376.3 billion, ranking first in Europe. This phenomenon sharply reveals the widening gap within a sovereign country between the rapidly developing crypto market practices and the lagging traditional financial regulatory framework, also indicating that global crypto compliance processes will face more complex national cases.

Behind Citizens’ “Crypto Anxiety”: Market Penetration and Regulatory Vacuum

Russia’s pension fund has been overwhelmed by massive crypto-related inquiries, which is not merely curiosity but a natural response to market deep penetration into social fabric. When citizens seriously consider using Bitcoin to plan their retirement or view household mining income as a stable welfare source, it clearly indicates that cryptocurrencies have evolved from speculative toys of geeks to quasi-financial tools of public concern. This concern stems directly from significant economic interests: Russia’s Bitcoin mining industry is large, with industry data showing an average daily output of 1 billion rubles, attracting many individuals and families. When ordinary people earn tangible ruble income from “mining,” they naturally ask: Is this money considered legal labor or business income by the authorities? Will it affect their eligibility for social benefits?

However, this confusion exposes the regulatory gray area. The response from fund officials—“All payments are made only in rubles, and digital asset taxation falls under the jurisdiction of the Federal Tax Service”—is a typical technical cutoff. It strictly distinguishes “payment tools” from “taxable assets,” attempting to frame cryptocurrencies within the existing fiscal management system but avoiding the broader legal definition of “property” or “income” in social security law. This “regulatory vacuum” is also evident at the macroeconomic level. Recently, Kremlin senior official Maxim Oreshkin publicly called for crypto mining to be considered a “new export item” in the international trade account. His logic is that although the Bitcoin produced by miners has no physical cross-border movement, its value is ultimately realized in overseas markets, affecting foreign exchange receipts and payments. This proposal is highly symbolic, marking that Russia’s ruling elite is beginning to attempt, from the perspective of national economic strategy, to officially “recognize” and “capture” the value of the crypto economy.

The citizens’ anxiety and officials’ proposals together depict a contradictory picture: on one hand, crypto economic activities are growing wildly among the Russian public and some industrial sectors, becoming an undeniable reality; on the other hand, the legal and administrative framework is still struggling to catch up, trying to balance encouraging innovation, collecting taxes, maintaining financial sovereignty, and controlling risks. This tension is a microcosm of many countries facing the impact of crypto technology, but in Russia, due to its unique geopolitical environment and resource-based economy, it manifests more intensely.

Key Data Overview of Russia’s Crypto Market in 2025

• On-chain transaction volume: From July 2024 to June 2025, reaching $376.3 billion, surpassing the UK to become Europe’s largest market.
• Global hash rate share: Bitcoin mining hash rate accounts for over 16% of the global total, ranking second worldwide.
• Growth in large transactions: Over $10 million transfers increased by 86% year-over-year, far exceeding Europe’s average growth rate of 44%.
• Public inquiry popularity: Among approximately 37 million inquiries annually to social funds, crypto-related questions are among the hottest topics.
• Corporate mining tax burden: Since legalizing mining in November 2024, corporate operations face a 25% tax rate.

From “Underground” to “On Stage”: Russia’s Difficult Construction of Crypto Regulation Framework

Faced with surging market waves, Russian regulators are attempting to build a dam that is neither fully closed nor completely open. According to plans, a comprehensive cryptocurrency legislative framework will come into effect before July 1, 2026. As a key infrastructure preparation, Moscow Exchange and Saint Petersburg Exchange have confirmed that once the law is in place, they will immediately launch regulated crypto trading services. This marks a historic leap of crypto assets in Russia from “gray-area private trading” to “regulated formal financial products.”

However, the upcoming “compliance stage” has strict access controls. The core idea of the regulatory framework is to manage “layered management” based on investor maturity, similar to many mature financial markets, but with cautious and conservative specifics. For “non-qualified investors” (i.e., the general public), regulations set multiple safeguards: their annual purchase limit for cryptocurrencies via a single intermediary is set at 300,000 rubles (roughly a few thousand USD), and they can only buy assets on an approved “liquidity crypto list,” after passing a mandatory financial literacy test. In contrast, “qualified investors” are not subject to limits but must demonstrate understanding of related risks and are prohibited from purchasing anonymous tokens that can hide transaction data. The clear intent is to open crypto investment channels to the public with limited scope, while isolating risks outside ordinary household wealth and resolutely cracking down on any anonymous tools that could be used to evade regulation.

The remarks of Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina exemplify this cautious attitude. She admits that mining activity indeed helps support the ruble exchange rate (since miners need to sell crypto for rubles to cover costs), but emphasizes that because many miners still operate in the “gray zone,” the overall economic impact is difficult to quantify. This “acknowledgment of contribution but concern over losing control” is a recurring theme in Russian regulators’ statements. The latest statement from Anatoly Aksakov, chairman of the State Duma committee, is even more decisive: “Cryptocurrencies will never become currency in our country,” only serving as investment tools, and all domestic payments must use rubles. This effectively denies the possibility of cryptocurrencies becoming a payment method within Russia, strictly limiting their function to investment/store-of-value categories. The emerging regulatory logic can be summarized as “transactions can be regulated, assets can be taxed, payments cannot,” aiming to incorporate the crypto ecosystem into control while safeguarding the sovereignty of fiat currency.

The “Russian Dilemma” of Stablecoins: Tether’s Entry and Exit

In Russia’s effort to build a domestic crypto ecosystem, stablecoins, especially Tether (USDT), play a highly delicate and contradictory role. On one hand, they are the “blood” of the country’s large crypto economy. Data shows that up to 95% of funds flowing to sanctioned entities are completed via stablecoins, with USDT being the preferred due to liquidity and popularity. Under sanctions pressure, Russia has a practical need to use cryptocurrencies for cross-border trade settlements, and USDT has effectively become a key intermediary.

On the other hand, Tether’s issuer, Tether Limited, must comply with regulations in its jurisdiction (mainly the US). This compliance has led to direct conflicts: less than a year ago, Tether, at the request of US authorities, froze $28 million worth of USDT related to Russian crypto exchange Garantex. This move was condemned by Russian industry participants as a “war against Russia’s crypto market,” raising widespread concerns about the safety of all USDT assets in Russia. The Russian Central Bank’s updated cross-border trade “sandbox” rules also explicitly state that tokens used “must not be associated with securities issued by unfriendly countries,” leading experts to generally believe that USDT and USDC are excluded from officially recognized settlement tools.

In this complex environment of cooperation and confrontation, the news that Tether’s asset tokenization platform Hadron successfully registered a trademark in Russia is particularly intriguing. According to the Russian Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (Rospatent), the trademark application was filed in October 2025 and approved in January 2026, with protection until October 2035. The scope covers blockchain-based financial services, cryptocurrency trading and exchange, payment processing, and related consulting. This move is interpreted as Tether’s intention to quickly establish a foothold in Russia’s growing private blockchain and tokenization markets. After all, the Bank of Russia disclosed in December 2025 that the total value of tokens issued on domestic private blockchains had reached $13 billion, involving assets such as precious metals, real estate, and even cocoa beans.

Tether’s “trademark-first” strategy can be seen as a risk hedge and long-term layout. It not only reserves space for future business expansion legally but also signals confidence in Russia’s market potential. However, given the current international political and regulatory environment, whether the Hadron platform can operate smoothly in Russia and how USDT’s role will evolve domestically remain highly uncertain. This essentially reflects the common dilemma faced by globalized crypto projects amid increasingly fragmented geopolitical landscapes.

Cryptocurrency Mining: From Gray Area to National Strategic Export

Russia’s discussions on crypto mining have long gone beyond the industry itself, rising to the level of national economic strategy. Oreshkin’s characterization of mining as a “new export” is a highly insightful perspective. Traditional exports involve cross-border flows of physical goods or services, but Bitcoin mining exports the “hash power”—an abstract commodity—embodying the value of electricity and network security, ultimately earning returns in circulating crypto assets. Russia’s abundant energy reserves (especially electricity) and cold climate are core factors for Bitcoin mining. Converting surplus energy into globally mobile digital assets logically aligns with its resource-export-oriented economic structure.

However, integrating this “theoretical export” into national statistics and effectively taxing it faces huge challenges. Although the 2024 law established a 25% tax rate for corporate miners and provided exemptions for household miners with monthly electricity consumption below 6,000 kWh, large “gray” and “black” mining farms still exist. These illegal operations, through electricity theft and tax evasion, cause billions of rubles in annual losses. As Nabiullina mentioned, the “difficult-to-quantify impact” partly stems from this. Therefore, promoting full legalization and transparency of mining is not only about increasing fiscal revenue but also about cultivating it into a manageable, strategic industry.

Industry data supports this strategic feasibility. Russia accounts for over 16% of global Bitcoin hash rate, meaning it has significant influence over the security of the global Bitcoin network. If clear regulations and favorable energy policies attract global capital to migrate hash power into Russia, it could create jobs and tax revenue while enhancing Russia’s voice in global digital asset infrastructure. From this perspective, the inquiries to the pension fund about “whether mining income is included in welfare” are vivid evidence of this industry’s deep penetration into society. Future policy directions are likely to involve cracking down on illegal mining while legislating and building infrastructure to shape compliant mining into a new flagship of Russia’s digital economy—transforming it from a “power-hungry monster” into a “refined energy export in the digital age.”

Digital Ruble and Crypto Assets: Russia’s Dual-Track Future

While actively discussing cryptocurrencies, Russia continues to advance its central bank digital currency (CBDC)—the digital ruble. Together, they outline Russia’s “dual-track” vision for the future monetary system. Chairman Aksakov’s assertion that “cryptocurrencies will never be the country’s currency” effectively clears the ideological obstacle for the digital ruble’s emergence. Positioned as a digital form of fiat currency, backed by state credit, the digital ruble aims to improve payment efficiency, enhance monetary policy transmission, and serve macroeconomic goals like “programmable economy.” It represents a state-led, centralized financial innovation path.

Meanwhile, cryptocurrencies (including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other tokens) are explicitly categorized as “investment assets” or “digital financial assets” within Russia’s regulatory framework. They can be traded on regulated exchanges, used as stores of value, and their underlying blockchain technology can be employed by banks and enterprises for issuing asset tokens (as Sberbank and others are doing), but they are not permitted in retail payments, directly competing with the digital ruble. This delineation aims to create a clear landscape: daily economic life is dominated by the digital ruble and traditional electronic ruble, ensuring financial sovereignty and stability; while high-risk, volatile crypto assets are confined to specialized investment markets to meet the needs of specific groups and institutions.

Whether this “dual-track” system can operate smoothly depends on multiple factors. First, whether regulation can effectively prevent widespread use of cryptocurrencies for payments (especially in cross-border and small-scale online transactions). Second, whether the digital ruble can offer compelling use cases to attract the public and enterprises. Lastly, changes in the international environment, especially sanctions pressures, will greatly influence Russia’s true attitude toward crypto assets. Currently, Russia is trying to carve out a unique path: leveraging crypto technology to inject vitality into the economy and circumvent some external pressures, while firmly maintaining control over domestic currency through the digital ruble and strict regulation. This grand financial experiment not only concerns Russia’s own future but also provides a crucial reference for other countries seeking to balance “innovation” and “control.” For global crypto practitioners, understanding Russia’s complex and contradictory market is key to grasping the next growth frontier.