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Anatoly Popov, Vice Chairman of the Executive Board of Russia's largest bank Sberbank, stated that the scale of compliant cryptocurrency trading in Russia is expected to reach at least 40 trillion rubles in its first year, approximately 46.43 billion USD. The bank anticipates that as investors shift to the official trading system, the scale will increase to about 75 trillion rubles, approximately 87.06 billion USD, by 2029.He noted that most of the cryptocurrency trading volume will still flow outside of the regulated exchange system, with about 20% of the trading volume in the first year, or 35 trillion to 40 trillion rubles per year, being completed through exchanges. The relevant system will take effect on September 1, allowing investors to legally purchase cryptocurrency assets through brokers. Non-qualified investors can purchase up to 300,000 rubles of cryptocurrency assets per year through a single licensed intermediary, and they must pass a risk awareness test; the investment limit for qualified investors is 3 million rubles. Currently, the official exchanges can only trade Bitcoin, Ethereum, and USDT, while other altcoins will be excluded; exchanges must complete registration by July 1, 2027.

Watcher Guru posted that Russia's largest bank, Sberbank, will accept Bitcoin, Ethereum, and USDT as collateral for loans.

According to Bits.media, the Central Bank of Russia (ЦБ РФ) announced that it has included 2,600 cryptocurrency wallet addresses suspected of illegal activities into a special information system. The related addresses involve legal entities, project parties, and individual business owners, having received a total of approximately 1 billion rubles in cryptocurrency assets.The system has been opened to government agencies and law enforcement departments. Once bank operations are associated with the aforementioned addresses, the related transactions are likely to be frozen. The central bank pointed out that 74% of the addresses involved are related to financial pyramid schemes and fraudulent activities, with common methods including false cryptocurrency investments, counterfeit data center projects, and illegal cryptocurrency lending (USDT stablecoin), among others.

According to Bits.media, Russia's three major telecom operators MTS, Rostelecom, and Megafon announced that they will start accepting digital ruble payments from September 1. MTS will support the use of digital rubles for all services within its payment module MTS Pay, with no category restrictions. Rostelecom will initially only support one-time payments on its official website, and will later expand to personal accounts; regular payments and automatic top-ups will depend on the readiness of the central bank's platform. Megafon will also offer it as an additional payment method.The two major e-commerce platforms, Wildberries and Ozon, also announced the activation of digital rubles on the same day. According to the law, starting from September 1, all large enterprises in Russia must be able to process digital ruble transactions, and the apps of 12 systemically important banks must have an entry point for digital ruble wallets. The central bank plans to impose limits on the recharge of digital wallets, with a maximum of 300,000 rubles per month through a single bank.

Sources from the Pakistani military and Iranian security agencies reveal that the United States and Iran have reached a consensus on the terms of a ceasefire agreement, which includes the freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz. Both parties are expected to announce relevant news in the coming days and initiate negotiations and technical meetings based on the Islamabad memorandum.

A fire broke out at the Afipsky Oil Refinery in southern Russia after a drone attack at night. The governor of the Krasnodar Krai stated that local emergency services are handling the fire.Ukrainian actions have led to Russian oil processing volumes dropping to multi-year lows, exacerbating fuel supply pressures. The Afipsky Oil Refinery is owned by ForteInvest, with a crude processing capacity of approximately 180,000 barrels per day.

According to Bitcoin.com News, the Central Bank of Russia has launched a special financial literacy test to lower the threshold for residents to qualify as accredited investors, in order to expand their cryptocurrency trading limits.

Ukraine is seeking to use drones equipped with the Starlink system to strike missile launch silos within 200 kilometers inside Russia due to a shortage of air defense interceptors. This move requires approval from Elon Musk, whose position is uncertain.Communication has faced challenges since the dismissal of former Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov. Military experts say Ukraine is struggling to obtain enough interceptors to maintain its air defense strategy.

According to monitoring by Catcher Predict, in the "NATO and Russia Military Conflict Prediction" event on the prediction market Polymarket, the "Yes" option in the sub-market "October 31" experienced a sharp fluctuation in winning probability, dropping from 43% an hour ago to the current 23.5% (a fluctuation of 19.5%). Please note the impact of related breaking news.

On July 23, the European Union passed the 21st round of sanctions against Russia, expanding the trading ban to 14 cryptocurrency service platforms located in Georgia, Panama, the UAE, the Marshall Islands, Kyrgyzstan, and Belarus, and adding 4 new sanctions measures targeting the A7 Russian ruble network. The new regulations will take effect on August 25, prohibiting Russian and Belarusian citizens from holding, controlling, or serving in positions within MiCA cryptocurrency asset service providers in the EU, with the scope extending to services such as consulting, portfolio management, and transferring cryptocurrency assets on behalf of clients.The new regulations also allow the EU to impose a comprehensive ban on cryptocurrency transactions against third countries that have not prevented relevant sanction evasion activities. The list of relevant countries is currently empty and only includes third countries identified by the EU Council as having continuously and systematically failed to prevent the provision of cryptocurrency asset services or the operation of related platforms.

According to Bitcoin.com, the Central Bank of Russia has released a draft regulation requiring professional market participants such as brokers, trust institutions, forex traders, and cryptocurrency exchanges to include cryptocurrency holdings when calculating their own capital, and the proportion of cryptocurrency assets must not exceed 25% of total capital. Holdings must be registered with a cryptocurrency custodian for national verification of their authenticity.The Central Bank of Russia stated that this measure aims to assess credit and market risks, ensuring the financial resilience of intermediaries in cryptocurrency transactions. This draft is a continuation of the process of legalizing cryptocurrency assets in Russia, providing investors with a reference to assess the financial status of licensed institutions. Previously, the State Duma approved comprehensive cryptocurrency regulatory legislation, allowing both qualified and unqualified investors to trade cryptocurrency assets, but the latter has an annual purchase limit of 300,000 rubles (approximately $3,800). The use of cryptocurrency as a means of payment is still prohibited domestically, while importers and exporters can use it without restrictions in cross-border settlements.

The Central Bank of Russia has released a regulatory draft proposing to include digital currencies in the asset scope for calculating capital adequacy ratios and other prudential regulatory indicators for professional participants in the financial market, applicable to institutions such as brokers, asset management companies, forex traders, and cryptocurrency exchanges.The draft stipulates that relevant institutions may only include cryptocurrencies approved for circulation on exchanges when calculating their own funds, with their value not exceeding 25% of the total assets included in the calculation, and they must be registered and held by a crypto custody institution. The Central Bank of Russia stated that this move aims to incorporate the risks of crypto assets into capital regulation and enhance the financial stability of financial intermediaries.

According to Cointelegraph, the cryptocurrency exchange Binance provided customer trading records and identity information to Russian authorities, which were subsequently used in a terrorism financing case against IT specialist Yuri Belenkiy.Yuri Belenkiy was detained in September 2025 and is currently awaiting trial in Russia. The Russian Investigative Committee accuses Yuri Belenkiy of donating over $700 in cryptocurrency to the Ukrainian military and banned organizations between January 2023 and March 2024.The information obtained by Russian authorities includes his transaction history, date of birth, address, phone number, Russian passport, and Bulgarian residence permit. Binance announced its complete withdrawal from Russia in September 2023 and sold its local business to CommEX.Binance stated that the company is not responsible for making or enforcing the laws of any jurisdiction, nor does it determine the content of charges or how governments use information in legal proceedings; the company will cooperate with legitimate information requests from global law enforcement agencies in accordance with applicable laws, privacy, and regulatory requirements.

According to bits.media citing RBC, several Russian banks focused on providing services to import and export businesses have begun to request cryptocurrency transaction explanations from their clients, requiring corporate clients to disclose the economic purpose of purchasing USDT and confirm that the counterparties providing the crypto assets are listed in the central bank's digital asset exchange operator registry.However, this registry has not yet been established, and the relevant regulatory laws only took effect on September 1. The central bank is still formulating the details, making the banks' requests practically impossible to fulfill. Experts believe such requests do not comply with current laws, and lawyer Elizaveta Lobuteva stated that they should be regarded as routine compliance checks and preparations for future regulatory changes, rather than new mandatory obligations.

According to bits.media, the Central Bank of Russia has included Bitcoin, Ethereum, and USDT in the list of cryptocurrencies approved for trading in the Russian market. This list is included in the draft guidelines for public consultation published by the Central Bank. The Central Bank briefly attributes the list to the standards set forth in the new Russian law: high market capitalization, high average daily trading volume, and at least five years of pricing history on overseas platforms.Non-professional investors can only purchase these three cryptocurrencies. The guidelines also set an annual purchase limit for non-professional investors: a maximum investment of 300,000 rubles per year through a single intermediary. Professional investors face fewer restrictions and can purchase any cryptocurrency offered on exchanges and over-the-counter markets without any limits. However, all investors, regardless of their status, must undergo mandatory testing before trading. Previously, Russian President Putin signed the "Digital Currency and Digital Rights Law" on August 4, establishing a regulatory framework for the circulation of cryptocurrencies, with relevant rules taking effect on September 1.

Russia's oil production in July was nearly 1 million barrels per day below its OPEC+ quota, with an average daily output of 8.887 million barrels, significantly lower than the monthly target of 9.824 million barrels.Ukraine has been attacking Russian oil infrastructure almost daily, threatening crude oil processing and export volumes, while the global energy market is also under pressure due to the conflict in the Middle East.

According to Cointelegraph, the Central Bank of Russia has proposed a list of cryptocurrency assets that can be publicly traded, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tether USDT. This proposal is based on a new law signed by President Putin on August 4, which authorizes the Central Bank of Russia to decide which digital currencies can enter organized trading and to formulate relevant rules.According to the proposal, the annual limit for non-qualified investors to purchase cryptocurrencies through brokers, cryptocurrency exchange services, or asset management institutions is 300,000 Russian rubles; qualified investors, on the other hand, are not subject to purchase limits. The Central Bank of Russia also requires that all investors complete a risk assessment and understand the risks of investing in cryptocurrency assets before trading. The proposal is open for public consultation until August 24.

The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) conducted raids on 9 unregistered cryptocurrency trading service providers in Moscow, claiming they were suspected of transferring funds obtained from fraud abroad through cryptocurrency assets, and detained more than 20 employees at the Moscow International Business Center.The FSB stated that these exchanges converted stolen funds from Russian telephone scam victims into cryptocurrency and transferred them to accounts they referred to as Ukrainian processing parties. The operation was carried out jointly by the FSB and the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs. The Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs has initiated a criminal investigation into large-scale fraud, which under Russian law can carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. The FSB stated that it is continuing to identify victims and assess potential compensation.

According to Jinshi reports, the governor of the Yaroslavl region in Russia stated that a local oil refinery caught fire after a drone attack.

According to Jinshi reports, the latest sanctions by the UK government target Russian ships and companies, including several banks and industrial groups.