The Bank of Russia has published its first registers of authorized crypto operators, listing four crypto exchange operators and five digital custodians under the regime that took effect on September 1. Sberbank, Russia's largest bank, appears on the custodian list alongside Atomyze, Voltari and Cloud Infrastructure, while T-Invest Lab, Zefir and Sistema-Crypto are named as exchange operators — and VTB Bank appears on both lists. The registrations are the first concrete output of the crypto law President Vladimir Putin signed in August, which created a regulated framework for exchanges, custodians, brokers and investors under central bank oversight.

The headline surprise is not that Russia regulated crypto, but who showed up first: the country's largest state-linked lender, Sberbank, is now a registered digital custodian, and VTB sits on both the exchange operator and custodian registers. Major banks becoming licensed crypto infrastructure providers within weeks of the law taking effect marks a first for Russia's financial system. It means Russian customers may soon hold crypto through familiar bank apps rather than foreign venues, with the bank sitting between the customer and the asset.

Per crypto.news, the crypto exchange operator register comprises VTB, Zefir, Sistema Crypto and T Invest Lab, while the digital depository register includes Sberbank, VTB, Atomyze, Voltari and Cloud Infrastructure. Altcoin Buzz reports a discrepancy, saying only three exchange operators — T-Invest Lab, Zefir and Sistema-Crypto — are named, with the fourth unnamed and the custodians other than Sberbank not named either. Both agree on the totals: four exchange operators and five custodians published by the central bank on Tuesday.

According to crypto.news, the first firms were admitted under transitional provisions of the law 'On Digital Currency and Digital Rights,' and must follow transaction and accounting rules immediately while reaching full compliance by September 1, 2027. Exchange operators can buy and sell digital currencies in their own name and with their own funds outside organized trading venues, while custodians can record digital currencies and rights, process transfers and give customers access to identifier addresses. In July, the central bank set minimum equity for digital depositories between 50 million and 250 million rubles, depending on services such as open distributed ledger work or post-trade settlement, per crypto.news.

Sberbank targets December 1 to launch crypto trading and custody supporting Bitcoin, Ether and USDT through SberBank Online, SberInvestments and SberBusiness, and crypto.news reports it also plans to accept BTC, ETH and USDT as loan collateral once approvals arrive. Per crypto.news, VTB Deputy CEO Vitaly Sergeichuk said investors could get digital currency trading through VTB My Investments as early as November, with the bank's own exchange in December. The payment ban survives in full — crypto cannot pay for goods and services — so this is a market for holding and trading, not spending. Altcoin Buzz notes no registered firm has a live customer-facing product yet; December 1 is the date that turns paperwork into something a holder can actually use.

For now, registered firms operate under transitional rules with a 2027 compliance runway, and Altcoin Buzz flags open questions: whether any operator has started live trading, whether Sberbank's December 1 date holds, and what fees and thresholds the regulator will apply. The wider framework is also still hardening. crypto.news reports nonqualified investors may buy eligible cryptocurrencies worth up to 300,000 rubles per year per intermediary after a suitability test, draft prudential rules would cap banks' combined crypto risk at 1% of capital with a 1,250% risk weight, and Rosfinmonitoring will use taxpayer INN identifiers for transaction monitoring from 2027.