Moscow Exchange plans Dec. 1 launch for Bitcoin, Ether and USDT trading

Moscow Exchange plans to open crypto trading on December 1

Moscow Exchange says it will start trading Bitcoin, Ether and Tether’s USDT on December 1. The Russian bourse describes the planned market as the country’s first organized digital currency market.

The exchange said on Monday that pilot trades will begin as participants join the platform. Trades will run on its existing stock-market infrastructure and will be cleared by the National Clearing Center (NCC), the group’s clearing arm that handles settlement between buyers and sellers.

Trading hours, settlement and limits for smaller investors

• Trading hours are set for 6:50 am to 11:50 pm Moscow time.
• The venue will initially support same-day and next-day settlement, plus swap transactions.
• Non-qualified investors must pass a test before buying crypto.
• Those investors are limited to purchases of 300,000 rubles (about $3,700) a year per broker.

The Russian crypto law behind the launch

The launch follows a Russian crypto law whose main provisions took effect on September 1. The law permits regulated trading. It keeps a ban on using cryptocurrency to pay for goods and services in Russia.

US, UK and EU sanctions on the exchange and clearing center

Moscow Exchange and the NCC have been under US sanctions since June 2024. The UK also sanctioned the exchange in June 2024, and the European Union added it to its sanctions list in July 2026.

A critic questions demand on a sanctioned venue

Sergey Mendeleev, founder of the Russian cross-border payments platform Exved, told Cointelegraph he doubted the planned market would attract much 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.

He also predicted uncompetitive trading conditions. He compared the planned offering to precious metals accounts at Russian lender Sberbank, where customers trade account balances without taking possession of the physical metal. He warned that investors could face “absolutely outrageous spreads,” meaning the gap between buying and selling prices. “For ordinary non-qualified investors, this is an entirely unattractive and unprofitable proposition,” he said.

Cross-border payments seen as the brighter possibility

Mendeleev said the platform could still have potential in cross-border payments. A venue where importers and exporters could buy and sell crypto directly with each other would be welcome, he said. But he 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.

What is confirmed

• Moscow Exchange plans to launch Bitcoin, Ether and USDT trading on December 1, with pilot trades starting as participants join.
• Trading will use the exchange’s stock-market infrastructure and clearing through the NCC.
• Non-qualified investors face a test and a 300,000-ruble annual purchase limit per broker.
• The exchange and the NCC are under US sanctions from June 2024, UK sanctions from the same period, and EU sanctions from July 2026.

What is still unclear

How much demand the market will draw is unknown, and the reports available do not include volume targets or demand estimates from the exchange. Mendeleev’s view that the launch will go unnoticed is a prediction, not a confirmed outcome. The actual spreads and trading conditions will only become clear once trading begins.

Why this matters

If it opens as planned, the venue would give investors in Russia a regulated local place to trade three widely known tokens, while the ban on crypto payments for goods and services stays in place. At the same time, the exchange and its clearing center remain under sanctions from the US, the UK and the EU.

Sources

• Cointelegraph

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