From May 26, new rules for foreign digital rights (FDR), adopted by the Central Bank on May 1, 2025, will come into effect in Russia. Foreign digital rights are obligations and other rights issued and circulated in systems that do not operate under Russian law (except for foreign securities). The document was created, naturally, to protect investors from the increased risks associated with the acquisition of such instruments.
According to the document, in Russia, only legal entities that are qualified investors will be able to acquire foreign digital rights. In addition, additional criteria will be introduced for the PPI:
- they must not be related to securities issued by hostile issuers;
- they must not certify the right to receive cryptocurrency or PPI that are not allowed to circulate on the territory of Russia;
- the terms of issue of the PPI must not contain any indication of possible blocking by either the issuers themselves or the payment agents or persons controlling them;
- the list of countries where the requirements for the PPI can be met must include at least one friendly country;
if disputes arise regarding digital instruments, they should not be considered in unfriendly jurisdictions.
Steyblecoin USDT does not meet these requirements, so its legal circulation in the country will be prohibited.
Commitments Tether on USDT redemption for US dollars arise only for a certain group of token holders. These include those who have a minimum amount for redemption on their wallet and have successfully passed the verification procedure (AML/KYC) according to the issuer’s rules. The latter indicate the issuer’s full compliance with the sanctions legislation introduced by «unfriendly» countries towards Russia.
Tether may, at its sole discretion, refuse to pay any person who has not passed verification. In addition, Tether has the ability to block USDT located in the wallet of any user, as it was with the crypto exchange Garantex, at its sole discretion at any time.
