Cryptocurrency exchange

Main article: Cryptocurrencies

2025: Five Russians were detained in Georgia for illegal cryptocurrency exchange. They seized $721 thousand.

Law enforcement agencies Georgia detained five citizens Russia on suspicion of illegal money laundering through operations with virtual assets. During the searches, the security forces seized $721 thousand in cash. This was announced Ministry of Finance to Georgia in October 2025.

During the investigation, it was established that one of the companies provided services with virtual assets without appropriate registration. The organization did not have permission from the National Bank of Georgia to conduct such activities. The company operated through an illegal representation and offered courier services.

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Фото: Freepik

The ministry said that over the past few months, transactions were carried out with virtual assets worth hundreds of millions of lari. This led to uncontrolled international transactions in the country. The amount of 100 million lari as of October 16, 2025 is equivalent to almost $37 million.

The investigation showed the scheme of work of the accused. They imported large sums of foreign currency into Georgia, bypassing border control points. The money was transported by car across the border. With the funds received, the suspects acquired virtual assets.

The detainees did not report on the operations to the regulatory authorities. They were engaged in the legalization of illegally received income through cryptocurrency transactions. Despite the scale of operations, companies and individuals involved in the scheme did not receive official payments.

A criminal case has been opened against Russians under two articles of the Criminal Code of Georgia. The first is article 192 on illegal entrepreneurial activity. The second is article 194 on the legalization of illegal income and money laundering.

Article 192 of the Criminal Code of Georgia provides for punishment in the form of imprisonment for up to five years. Article 194 about legalization of illegal income assumes more strict punishment - up to 12 years of imprisonment.^[1]

2024: Crypto exchanges in grocery stores began to appear in Moscow

In early December 2024, it became known that automated crypto exchanges began to appear in Moscow grocery stores. We are talking about special terminals of the company RusBit for the exchange of money for cryptocurrency and vice versa. Read more here.

2022: The number of crypto-mats to exchange money for cryptocurrency and vice versa has increased sharply in Moscow

At the end of October 2022, it became known that the number of cryptomats for exchanging money for cryptocurrency and vice versa had sharply increased in Moscow. So, in the company RusBit, which is engaged in the installation of such equipment, it was reported that since the beginning of 2022, 14 new cryptomats have appeared, and the total number in the Russian Federation has reached 52 pieces.

In cryptomats, you can convert virtual currency into fiat currency either in non-cash form to a bank account, or in cash. In this case, there may be a restriction on the volume and types of cash currency withdrawn. For example, you cannot withdraw cash from Russian cryptomats.

The number of cryptomats has sharply increased in Moscow

The demand for such services has grown due to the difficulty of buying cryptocurrencies for ordinary citizens - usually you need to look for P2P platforms, register accounts on English-language sites, undergo verification or search for an exchanger on the Internet, Roman Kaufman, co-founder of the blockchain company Berezka DAO, told Kommersant.

RusBit considers the installation of cryptomats to be completely legal. According to the creators of the company, firstly, all cars are connected to the OFD cloud cash desk (a fiscal data operator that transmits data from cash registers to the Federal Tax Service). Secondly, all Bitcoin addresses are now checked through the KYC (Know Your Client) system. Finally, under the Digital Financial Assets Act, digital currency is a "digital commodity."

However, lawyers note that the terminals are in the "gray zone" and it is unclear how the rights of citizens will be protected in the event of problems.

At the same time, cryptomats offer unfavorable exchange conditions. The correspondent of the publication acquired a small share of bitcoin through cryptomat. The purchase rate amounted to 1.494 million rubles, which is 10-14% higher than in Internet exchangers. At the same time, the funds have not yet reached the crypto wallet. RusBit expects that up to 1,000 terminals will be installed in Russia in 2023.^[2]

2020: Roskomnadzor blocks crypto exchanges

As it became known at the end of October 2020, cases of blocking crypto exchanges have become more frequent in Russia. Thus, Roskomnadzor entered the website of the largest crypto exchange Binance in terms of trading volumes into the register of prohibited ones, and then - the largest cryptocurrency exchange service in the CIS MINE.exchange. Read more here.

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