The State Duma Committee on Financial Markets has adopted in the first reading a bill that will allow the Bank of Russia to launch an experiment on September 1 to create a sandbox for testing international settlements in cryptocurrency.

An updated version of Bill No. 341257-8 of 2023 was reintroduced to the State Duma in April 2024. The bill establishes that the Bank of Russia acts as an authorized and regulatory body for experimental legal regimes (ELR) in the field of digital innovation in the financial market. At the same time, approved projects of the Central Bank are removed from the scope of federal laws.

The draft law obliges the Bank of Russia, when performing the functions of an authorized and regulatory body, to inform the FSB and Rosfinmonitoring within 10 days of the identification of risks during the monitoring of the activities of the initiator of the EPR in the field of digital innovations in the financial market.

The program may provide for the use of digital assets as a currency value: when conducting transactions with digital currencies as a means of payment in foreign trade activities, determining the rights and obligations of residents and non-residents when they carry out currency transactions with digital currency, as well as for the purposes of regulating the activities of currency control bodies and agents in this area.

The State Duma Committee on Financial Markets is expected to propose considering the bill in the first reading and second reading at the plenary session of the State Duma on July 23. If parliamentarians approve the Committee’s proposals, the Central Bank of Russia will begin an experiment on September 1 to create a platform for using cryptocurrencies in international settlements.

Earlier, the First Deputy Chairman of the Bank of Russia Olga Skorobogatova announced at the Financial Congress in St. Petersburg that officials are studying the issue of using the digital ruble in settlements with partners from other countries, and the regulator is ready to implement the project.