New rules set phased rollout through 2028, starting with top banks and high-volume sellers.
After years in development, the Bank of Russia is now poised to roll out its digital ruble, with the country’s largest banks expected to enable customers to send and pay using it starting September 1, 2026.
In a June 25 press release, Russia’s central bank said retail clients of large banks with annual revenue above ₽120 million (about $1.5 million) will be required to accept digital ruble payments from that date.
By September 1, 2027, the rule will extend to all other banks with universal licenses and their clients earning more than ₽30 million a year. A full rollout is expected by 2028, although merchants with annual sales of less than ₽5 million will be exempt.
The digital ruble will not run on a traditional public blockchain like Bitcoin or Ethereum. Instead, it relies on a hybrid setup that uses distributed ledger elements but remains centrally controlled by the Bank of Russia.
Unlike regular bank payments, digital ruble payments won’t offer loyalty rewards like cashback or bonuses, according to banks involved in the pilot. There’s also no interest paid on balances held in digital rubles, making it less attractive for users to hold. Merchants, however, may benefit, as the central bank’s infrastructure is expected to lower transaction costs, though details are still unclear.
Significant Delay
The new deadlines are a significant delay from the original goal of launching mass adoption by mid-2025. While the central bank hasn’t given a clear reason, people familiar with the testing phase pointed to issues such as banks struggling to move away from foreign software, like Oracle, due to sanctions.
There were also concerns about how the system would work during power outages. As a result, offline payments with the digital ruble, once promoted by the central bank, have been dropped from the plan.
In a consultation paper from October 2020, Russia’s central bank reassured citizens that the CBDC will complement, not replace, existing cash and non-cash rubles in circulation. Still, there’s no certainty Moscow won’t follow the same path it took with the MIR payment system, which became mandatory for public sector payrolls starting July 2018.
For example, China — which Russia often looks to — began paying civil servants in Changshu with digital yuan to promote its usage. However, reports indicate that many people still struggle to use it, as China’s CBDC also does not pay interest, and efforts to shift payments onto state-run rails have yielded mixed results.
