In 2025, Russia allows crypto only for the ultra-rich and for international trade. Ordinary citizens can own it but can't spend it. The digital ruble is coming-and it's designed to replace crypto, not embrace it.
Crypto Ban Russia: What Happened and How It Changed the Game
When Crypto Ban Russia, the official 2022 government move to outlaw cryptocurrency payments and mining operations within the country. Also known as Russia's crypto prohibition, it wasn’t a full crypto ban—it was a targeted strike on financial independence. The goal? To protect the ruble, stop capital flight, and push people toward the digital ruble, Russia’s state-controlled central bank digital currency (CBDC). But unlike China’s total crypto shutdown, Russia left a backdoor open: owning crypto was never illegal, and peer-to-peer trading kept going strong. What followed wasn’t silence—it was adaptation.
People didn’t stop using crypto. They just stopped using banks. crypto mining ban Russia, the part of the ban that shut down large-scale mining farms. But individual miners? They kept running rigs in basements and garages. Some even moved hardware to neighboring countries like Kazakhstan and Georgia. Meanwhile, crypto wallet Russia, non-custodial wallets like Ledger, Trust Wallet, and Exodus became lifelines. No bank could freeze them. No regulator could track them. And that’s why they exploded in popularity, even as official channels tried to shut them down. The ban forced users into self-custody, turning casual holders into hardened crypto natives overnight.
The real story isn’t in the laws—it’s in the behavior. The posts below show how Russians and global users reacted: meme coins with no liquidity still found buyers, decentralized exchanges kept running despite zero official support, and airdrops that claimed to be "Russia-friendly" turned out to be scams. You’ll see how projects like Neversol and Kabosu Inu thrived in the chaos, not because they were good investments, but because they were distractions in a time of economic pressure. You’ll find reviews of exchanges that worked despite being unregulated, and warnings about fake airdrops that preyed on people desperate for income. This isn’t about regulation—it’s about survival. And what you’ll read here isn’t theory. It’s what actually happened when a country tried to cut crypto off, and the market refused to die.