Moscow Exchange to begin Bitcoin, Ethereum and USDT trading on Dec. 1, 2026 Moscow Exchange (MOEX) has confirmed it will start trading Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Tether’s USDT through its existing stock-market infrastructure on December 1, 2026, as Russia rolls out its regulated crypto market. The announcement was made by Boris Blokhin, MOEX’s senior managing director for sales and business development, at the Smartlab investment conference in Moscow, according to an RBC report on October 31. Blokhin said the exchange has already started transaction testing with professional market participants and will admit more firms as their systems are connected. What will be available and who can trade - The initial offering will include Bitcoin, Ethereum and the dollar-pegged stablecoin USDT — the three assets that meet the Bank of Russia’s criteria for trading by nonqualified (retail) investors, namely trading history, liquidity and market capitalization. - Professional (qualified) participants will be the first to test the service; retail access will follow but is subject to investor eligibility rules under Russia’s new crypto law. Nonqualified investors must pass a knowledge assessment and face an annual purchase limit of 300,000 rubles per intermediary. Qualified investors have no comparable purchase ceiling but must meet testing requirements. Infrastructure and mechanics - Crypto trading will run on MOEX’s existing securities trading infrastructure, an approach intended to limit extra costs for brokers and professional participants. Investors will place buy and sell orders through an electronic order book where competing bids set execution prices. - The exchange plans to offer swap transactions for liquidity management, likening them to repurchase (repo) operations in securities and currency swaps used in FX markets. - Trading hours will follow MOEX’s longest stock market schedule: 06:50–23:50 Moscow time. Regulatory and custody setup - The launch will operate under Russia’s regulated crypto framework that began taking effect on September 1. The legislation allows both qualified and nonqualified investors to buy cryptocurrencies via authorized intermediaries, with different access conditions for each group. Russia still bans cryptocurrency payments for ordinary domestic goods and services, though some qualifying cross-border crypto transactions are permitted. - MOEX says its existing trading-organizer license covers the new service; partner digital depositories will hold and account for customer crypto holdings while brokers provide front-end access and customer onboarding. Testing, partners and market context - MOEX began transaction testing in early October and reports several clients are already trading within the test environment. Blokhin said the number of firms involved is sufficient to proceed with the proposed pilot launch. Professional participants are building and connecting digital depository systems to the exchange. - The broader rollout follows the registration in October of Russia’s first cryptocurrency exchange operators and digital custodians. Early participants include financial groups connected to Sberbank, VTB and T-Technologies, all preparing digital-asset services under the new law. Sberbank is also preparing its own December crypto service covering trading, custody and settlement for eligible customers. Why MOEX expects demand - Blokhin cited two reasons for expected demand: the exit of foreign crypto platforms from the Russian market and already-active domestic interest shown through MOEX’s crypto-linked products. In September the exchange launched five crypto perpetual futures tied to indexes for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, XRP and Tron — contracts that give exposure to price moves without delivering the underlying coins and are restricted to qualified investors. MOEX has said more than 72,000 qualified investors traded those futures, generating cumulative turnover in excess of 600 billion rubles. What this means MOEX’s December launch adds direct crypto trading to an exchange that already offers derivatives exposure to digital assets. By using familiar securities infrastructure, MOEX aims to lower operational friction for brokers and integrate crypto trading into Russia’s regulated financial ecosystem — while keeping retail participation tightly controlled under the new investor-protection rules. Read more AI-generated news on: https://app.chaingpt.org/news