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The Belarusian National Bank is seeking to evolve the country’s crypto framework, tightening the authoritarian government’s grip on the sector and signalling a new phase in its ongoing experiment with digital assets.
The bank’s plans to establish a special working group to combat illegal cryptocurrency operations could pave the way for potential new ventures such as the creation of crypto banks.
The initiative follows a meeting between the National Bank, commercial banks and crypto market participants in October, where regulators expressed concern over unauthorised transactions and the withdrawal of stolen funds.
According to the bank’s first deputy chairman, Alexander Egorov, the working group will focus on preventing the misuse of digital assets for cross-border payments and money laundering.
The announcement comes as Belarus, an authoritarian state under Western sanctions and closely aligned with Russia, seeks to consolidate control over its financial system.
Since 2017, when President Alexander Lukashenko’s government first legalised cryptocurrencies through a Decree No. 8 on the Development of the Digital Economy, the country has moved steadily from liberalisation toward central oversight – a shift that now places crypto firmly under state supervision.
Cryptocurrency exchanges in Belarus are permitted to operate only if they are residents of the High-Tech Park (HTP), a special tax and legal regime.
In September 2024, Belarus banned individuals and individual entrepreneurs residing in the HTP from trading cryptocurrencies outside Belarusian crypto exchanges.
According to Ekaterina Logvinovich, a senior lawyer at the SBH Law Offices, a Minsk-based law firm, the establishment of the working group under the National Bank will facilitate the sharing of experiences among financial institutions, crypto exchanges and government agencies, thereby improving the effectiveness of practical measures to detect crime.
Despite the developed infrastructure, illegal cryptocurrency transactions are an issue in Belarus, Nikolay Artemiev, managing partner of Minsk-based law firm Art Legal told Vixio.
The key reason the National Bank wants to coordinate with the crypto community is to curb the practice of transferring stolen funds abroad via cryptocurrency, Artemiev said.
De-liberalisation in action
The Belarusian regulatory framework is moving along a clear trajectory from the original “everything-is-permitted” model to the “strict-safe-and-controlled” model, said Naira Manukyan, director of MyConsult, a Minsk-based financial advisory firm.
The establishment of the working group is set to be a continuation of this strategy.
“The endgame is clear: to make cryptocurrency legal and safe to use, to attract investors, but at the same time, to make sure everyone is under state supervision and pays taxes,” she added.
Over the past two years, the Belarusian government and the National Bank have already introduced substantial changes to the cryptocurrency legislation.
For example, crypto exchangers could previously operate freely in the country, but now they are regulated like banks; to open such a platform, investors need a special licence from the state, Manukyan emphasized.
One of the key consequences of the legal changes introduced in 2024 and 2025 was better tax collection.
“The golden days when crypto was almost tax-free [in Belarus] are over. Now, income from mining and selling cryptocurrency must be declared and taxed,” Manukyan said.
In September 2024, the Belarusian regulator restricted peer-to-peer (P2P) operations. However, Logvinovich noted that despite a developed legal infrastructure, cryptocurrency regulation has several key gaps.
For example, there is still no regulation of new ways to earn money from cryptocurrencies, such as mining, staking and referral rewards, or their taxation.
Other areas still lacking regulation include crypto funds and custodial services, mining pools and banks’ access to token and cryptocurrency operations, Logvinovich stated.
Crypto banks
In parallel, Belarus is considering plans to become a regional pioneer in establishing crypto banks, as reported by Belta, a state-controlled media agency.
Under the initiative, crypto banks will be able to facilitate activities such as providing crypto-backed loans, offering custody solutions and allowing the direct buying, selling, and holding of digital assets.
“Active work is currently underway to develop regulations for crypto banks within the framework of a three-year legal experiment,” Logvinovich said, adding that the list of transactions that will be available for crypto banks is still under discussion.
“We will likely see not just one crypto bank, but several players within this legal experiment – this new direction is of interest to banks and crypto exchanges in Belarus and the region,” she told Vixio.
On the other hand, regulators have no plans to grant cryptocurrency the status of a means of payment in Belarus, though a number of payment tasks for individuals and organizations will be possible through crypto banks.
At this stage, the establishment of crypto banks will have limited impact on the country's payment system, Manukyan said.
“In Belarus, payments [for goods and services] in cryptocurrency remain prohibited, as the ruble remains the sole primary payment method,” she added.
“However, the existence of such a bank as an alternative to traditional banks and traditional money is a step forward. Such a bank can do almost the same things as a traditional bank, only with Bitcoin and other digital currencies,” Manukyan stated.
According to Artemiev, crypto banks will create an alternative and competition in the payment services market.
“Particularly interesting would be a crypto bank's focus on investment instruments, crypto deposits and crypto loans, and the integration of crypto into payment solutions, including international settlements, rather than just token exchange and trading,” he said.
However, Artemiev emphasized that financial regulators must establish a clear legal framework for these new institutions to manage risk.
State control
Belarus’s evolving crypto framework reflects a deliberate balancing act: preserving the country’s image as a regional pioneer while bringing every part of the sector under state scrutiny.
The tightening rules may also serve broader political and economic aims, including curbing capital flight and ensuring that tax revenues and financial flows remain traceable amid sanctions.
If implemented, the crypto bank experiment could make Belarus one of the first jurisdictions in Eastern Europe to integrate digital assets into its banking system. However, the initiative will be watched closely by international observers, given the country’s opaque regulatory environment and limited access to global financial networks.
For now, the National Bank’s latest move underscores a clear message: the age of near-unregulated crypto in Belarus is over. What remains to be seen is whether tighter control will foster legitimate innovation or merely strengthen the state’s grip on another corner of the economy.
