Moscow Exchange said on Monday that it plans to launch trading in Bitcoin, Ether and Tether's USDT on December 1, 2026, describing the venue as Russia's first organized digital currency market. The exchange said pilot trades would begin as participants join the platform.
Trades will use the exchange's existing stock-market infrastructure and be cleared through the National Clearing Center, with trading hours from 6:50 am to 11:50 pm Moscow time. The venue will initially support same-day and next-day settlement as well as swap transactions.
Non-qualified investors must pass a test before buying crypto and will be limited to 300,000 rubles (about $3,700) annually per broker, according to the exchange. The launch follows a Russian crypto law whose main provisions took effect on September 1, permitting regulated trading while maintaining a ban on cryptocurrency payments for goods and services in Russia.
Moscow Exchange and the National Clearing Center have been under US sanctions since June 2024, when the UK also sanctioned the exchange. The European Union added the exchange to its sanctions list in July 2026.
Sergey Mendeleev, founder of Russian cross-border payments platform Exved, told Cointelegraph he doubted the proposed market would attract significant demand. "Neither the global nor the local market will notice anything at all," he said, questioning who would trade on a sanctioned exchange. The UK sanctioned Mendeleev on May 26.
Mendeleev also predicted uncompetitive trading conditions, comparing the prospective offering to precious metals accounts at Russian lender Sberbank, where customers trade account balances without taking possession of physical metal. He warned investors could face "absolutely outrageous spreads," referring to the difference between buying and selling prices. "For ordinary non-qualified investors, this is an entirely unattractive and unprofitable proposition," he said.
Mendeleev saw potential for the platform to support cross-border payments. He said a venue where importers and exporters could buy and sell crypto directly with one another would be welcome, but questioned whether adding another intermediary would be competitive in a market where traders negotiate over price differences as small as 0.05%. "I hope this will mark a genuine breakthrough for foreign trade," he said.