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Russia is taking significant steps to prepare for a new era in its cryptocurrency sector. Following the State Duma's recent approval of a bill regulating Bitcoin and altcoins, the Central Bank of Russia has published a draft framework to establish the first legal basis for systematic crypto trading in the country. This framework, an extension of the crypto market law expected to take effect in September, outlines procedures for buying and selling digital assets and sets key rules for their custody. It proposes that crypto custodians must maintain a capital of 50 to 250 million rubles (over $3 million USD) and meet additional requirements for storage and record-keeping. Furthermore, cryptocurrency exchanges will be allowed to define their own trading procedures and calculate weighted average prices for assets traded on their platforms. The Central Bank will also maintain a register of institutions authorized to hold digital deposits.

A group of 134 bank leaders has expressed concern over the CLARITY Act, specifically urging U.S. Senate leaders to revise Section 10404. This section restricts interest or yield payments on payment stablecoins. The bankers are pushing for tighter rules to prevent companies from circumventing the ban using rewards, incentives, or similar mechanisms that offer economic benefits for holding stablecoins. They warn that if stablecoin-based products can attract funds through interest-like rewards, it could reduce the local deposit base used for lending by hundreds of billions of dollars, potentially harming financing for families, small businesses, and communities. The debate centers on whether payment stablecoins should remain transaction-focused or could evolve into investment-like products. The bankers argue that incentives tied to account balances or holding periods mimic interest-bearing products, creating a need for clearer legal boundaries. They seek amendments to allow for payment innovations while restricting structures that replicate deposit-like incentives without the regulatory framework applied to insured banks. The final Senate bill will determine how payment-focused digital assets integrate into the U.S. financial system.

BNY Mellon has launched a blockchain-based digital platform for transfer agency services, enabling the maintenance of ownership registries for tokenized funds. The new solution, operating alongside the bank's traditional system, aims to serve as a single source of truth, reduce intermediaries, and speed up settlement times. The initiative is part of a broader strategy to modernize Wall Street infrastructure. The first client is UK investment firm Baillie Gifford, which will use the platform to launch the UK's first fully native, regulated tokenized fund. Other planned users include BlackRock and BNY's Dreyfus Cash Investment Strategies. Bank executives highlighted blockchain's potential to eliminate costly data reconciliation across disparate systems by providing a single, real-time ledger. While acknowledging blockchain's transformative potential for financial market infrastructure, BNY noted that traditional systems will operate in parallel for years and that new risks, such as smart contract vulnerabilities, accompany the technology's adoption. BNY's transfer agency business currently services approximately $8.6 trillion in assets.

Altura, a DeFi yield-focused protocol, announced a delay in the final stage of closing its stablecoin vault due to a bank freezing its account. Over £16.4 million in cash for the final user payout round is currently locked while the bank conducts an internal review. The closure process began in June following significant withdrawal pressure. Altura had already recovered assets from partners and was preparing an OTC trade to convert the cash to USDT for distribution. The company stated the situation is beyond its control and awaits bank clearance. Altura's vault, built on HyperEVM, once held nearly $39 million. The protocol stressed that its issues are unrelated to other market stress points like Main Street and that its core lending operations remain unaffected. The timeline for final user repayments now depends on when the bank unfreezes the account.

The Bank of Russia has published draft rules for margin trading of cryptocurrency and digital financial assets (DFAs). According to the proposals, both qualified and non-qualified investors will have access to leveraged transactions, though limits will be set for the latter in the future on transaction volume and permitted assets. Brokers may open a margin position for a client only if the trading platform provides an official risk rate for the specific asset. To combine crypto-assets and digital rights into one position, they must trade on the same technological platform or information system. The central bank is accepting feedback on the draft until August 12. Russia's organized cryptocurrency market is slated to launch from September 1, 2026, following the enactment of the "On Digital Currencies and Digital Rights" law. While this law establishes the core regulatory framework, additional norms, including these margin trading rules and previously published requirements for digital depositories and organized trading conditions, will be set out in separate Bank of Russia regulations.