In August 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law legalizing mining in Russia. Since November 1, 2024, legal entities, individual entrepreneurs, and in some cases, ordinary citizens have been allowed to mine cryptocurrencies.
De facto, a cryptocurrency mining market has long been established in Russia. Even before the law came into force, an industrial mining association appeared, and in a number of regions, for example, in Irkutsk, due to cheap electricity tariffs, mining of virtual currencies flourished.

“Many “white” miners honestly tried to pay taxes, but the Federal Tax Service began to refuse VAT deductions on imported mining equipment, and this became an unpleasant surprise for the industry.
The law on mining allowed the extraction of cryptocurrencies, but introduced some restrictions.
What is allowed for individuals (citizens of Russia):
- Use crypto exchanges, virtual currencies, wallets and crypto exchange services. At the last moment, the provision on the supposed ban on the circulation of digital currencies in Russia was removed from the law;
- Engage in mining without inclusion in the “Mining Register” of the Federal Tax Service, if they do not exceed the energy consumption limits – 6,000 kilowatt-hours per month.
What is allowed for legal entities (companies) and individual entrepreneurs (with such status):
What is allowed for legal entities (companies) and individual entrepreneurs (with this status):
- Buy virtual coins;
- Mining cryptocurrencies if the business is included in the “Mining Register” of the Federal Tax Service;
- Be an operator of mining infrastructure (a person who provides places for the placement and use of equipment for mining virtual currencies), if the business is included in the “Mining Register” of the Federal Tax Service (FTS).
What is prohibited:
- Advertising cryptocurrency and goods, works, services in the field of crypto exchange;
- Accepting digital currency for your goods, works, services (exception: it is allowed to reward the activities of a miner or mining infrastructure operator with virtual currency);
- Individuals (citizens of Russia) – buying foreign digital financial assets (digital rights to an asset) on Russian platforms without the regulator’s permission.
“As before, digital currencies cannot be accepted as payment in Russia, but it is possible to pay for imported goods if the law is interpreted literally, as the Constitutional Court requires in public legal relations,” say lawyers from the “Geoburo” company.
Mining cannot be carried out by:
- Individual entrepreneurs who have not been expunged or have not been expunged from their convictions for crimes in the economic sphere, against state power, or for intentional crimes of medium gravity, serious and especially serious crimes;
- Individual entrepreneurs included in the list of terrorists and extremists;
- Individual entrepreneurs whose accounts and property have been frozen, and legal entities (companies) that have such persons among their founders, beneficiaries or managers;
- Companies (legal entities) that produce, transmit, sell or buy electricity; this list also includes firms that are engaged in operational dispatch management in the electric power industry.
Miners’ responsibilities:
- Be included in the “Mining Registry” of the Federal Tax Service (FTS);
- Report information about mined cryptocurrency and address identifiers (a unique sequence of characters intended to record transactions with digital currency) to the body authorized by the government;
- Provide address identifiers upon request from the Federal Security Service (FSB), the Federal Tax Service (FTS), the Federal Property Management Agency and Rosfinmonitoring.
The President also allowed foreign trade settlements in cryptocurrency to be carried out under an experimental legal regime from September 1, 2024. The Central Bank is empowered to create a platform for transactions with digital coins based on the national payment system, the rules of which it will be able to determine independently.

How to register income from cryptocurrencies.
To register income from virtual currencies, individuals need to:
- Record all facts of purchase and sale of digital coins;
- Submit a declaration on form 3-NDFL. This can be done offline or online through the “State Services” portal. The declaration is submitted no later than April 30 of the year following the year in which the income was received;
- Confirm income and expenses. For this, contracts, documents on transfers and transactions, downloads from a personal account on a crypto exchange, screenshots and any other documents that allow you to establish the chronology of transactions with cryptocurrency are used. For documents in a foreign language, a translation into Russian and notarization will be required.
How a company should maintain tax and accounting records of digital currency:
- Secure an approach to tax accounting of cryptocurrency in the accounting policy, and for organizations on the general taxation system in the accounting policy;
- Determine the applicability of the cross-rate of the estimated value of the cryptocurrency for reflection in accounting in rubles on the date of the transaction;
- Develop regulations for documenting transactions, “link” the wallet in the blockchain to a legal entity (company);
- Calculate the tax base, fill out the declaration, replenish the single tax account.
Legal entities (Companies) pay income tax on the sale of cryptocurrency at a rate of 20% in 2024 and from 2025 the tax rate will be 25%. Individuals (citizens of Russia) and sole proprietors using the general taxation system pay personal income tax (PIT) at a rate of 13%. If the income for 2024 is more than 5,000,000 rubles, the rate increases to 15%. At the same time, it is worth remembering that in Russia from 2025 a new progressive PIT scale will be introduced, up to 22%.
Sole proprietors and companies (legal entities) using the simplified taxation system pay tax upon receipt of income from cryptocurrency transactions. Depending on the object of taxation (income 6% or income reduced by expenses 15%.
However, applying the Simplified Tax System (STS) 15% may be unprofitable, since the Tax Code contains a closed list of expenses for payers of the simplified system, and cryptocurrency is not mentioned in it yet.
Only income received from the sale of digital coins is subject to taxation. Owners do not need to pay anything for the purchase and storage of cryptocurrency. If the sale of virtual coins was at a loss, there is no need to pay taxes.
How will the new law affect the cryptocurrency market?
The new law on mining will allow:
- To streamline activities in the cryptocurrency sector;
- To minimize the impact of gray miners on the country’s energy system;
- To provide clear rules of the game to large industry players;
- To protect citizens from potential financial risks in connection with the ban on advertising virtual currencies;
- To make settlements with other countries more actively.

“The law will make life easier for large miners, and medium and smaller ones will most likely have to join larger and more powerful mining pools (a union of several miners for joint mining of cryptocurrencies).”
The article was prepared by lawyers and experts of the “Geoburo” company under the supervision of Andrey Kichaev. November 18, 2024.