In this paper the fractional Cox–Ingersoll–Ross process on ${\mathbb{R}_{+}}$ for $H<1/2$ is defined as a square of a pointwise limit of the processes ${Y_{\varepsilon }}$, satisfying the SDE of the form $d{Y_{\varepsilon }}(t)=(\frac{k}{{Y_{\varepsilon }}(t){1_{\{{Y_{\varepsilon }}(t)>0\}}}+\varepsilon }-a{Y_{\varepsilon }}(t))dt+\sigma d{B^{H}}(t)$, as $\varepsilon \downarrow 0$. Properties of such limit process are considered. SDE for both the limit process and the fractional Cox–Ingersoll–Ross process are obtained.