Despite the lack of regulation for the industry, all crypto exchanges operating in Russia provide user information to government bodies, according to Russia’s financial watchdog.
The anonymity of cryptocurrency transactions is nothing but a myth, a Rosfinmonitoring representative insisted, adding that information sharing in the sector meets international standards.
Crypto exchanges provide wallet data to Russian law enforcement
The absence of dedicated rules governing cryptocurrency exchanges does not prevent them from interacting with law enforcement agencies, a high-ranking official from Russia’s Federal Financial Monitoring Service (Rosfinmonitoring) revealed.
The Russian Federation is yet to properly regulate exchanges and other trading venues working with digital assets, but those operating in the country are already verifying their customers, explained Olga Tisen, who heads the watchdog’s legal department.
Speaking at a forum in St. Petersburg, she elaborated:
“As you know, there is no legislation in Russia regulating the activities of crypto exchanges, and they currently operate outside the scope of legal regulation. However, this doesn’t mean they do not verify the owners of cryptocurrency wallets.”
According to Tisen, coin trading platforms have been open about sharing such information upon request from government organizations, including details about wallets and addresses.
Quoted by the Tass news agency, she stated:
“The anonymity of cryptocurrency transactions is currently a myth.”
Crypto transactions are not banking secrets, Tisen insists
The regulator also noted that digital asset transfers are not classified as data constituting banking secrets and emphasized that no court order is needed to obtain details about the owner of a cryptocurrency wallet.
During the XIII St. Petersburg International Legal Forum, Tisen said:
“All crypto exchanges that have at least one representative office in Russia interact with law enforcement organizations, providing information about owners of crypto wallets.”
The most popular exchanges, such as the world’s largest, Binance, and including those in the Russian-speaking segment of the market, already have dedicated pages on their websites detailing their cooperation with law enforcement agencies, she pointed out.
This confirms they are actively providing authorities with information about the owners of cryptocurrency wallets, Olga Tisen stressed, attributing this to the need to meet applicable international standards.
Tisen was referring to requirements to collect this kind of data in accordance with the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the intergovernmental body tasked with developing policies to counter money laundering and terrorism financing.
Russian banks share more information with Rosfinmonitoring
Rosfinmonitoring is also receiving crypto-related transactions data from Russian banks, the business news portal RBC remarked in a report. The watchdog has previously notified financial institutions that they should pay closer attention to transfers linked to digital assets.
Quoting the head of the agency’s Department of Supervisory Activities, Maria Shcherbakova, the crypto news outlet Bits.media revealed earlier this year that Russian banks have started sharing more information about such transactions with the financial watchdog.
Russia hasn’t yet regulated cryptocurrencies and operations with them with existing legislation mainly focusing on mining and other digital financial assets. In March, the Central Bank of Russia proposed to limit crypto trading to only “highly qualified” investors.
The monetary authority recently announced additional requirements for digital assets entering the Russian market. Analysts say these can affect some cryptocurrencies, including stablecoins like Tether, which allow issuers to freeze crypto wallets.
Cryptopolitan Academy: Coming Soon – A New Way to Earn Passive Income with DeFi in 2025. Learn More
