Moscow Exchange Says It Will Be Ready for Crypto Trading by Early December

The Moscow Exchange (MOEX) expects to be technically ready to launch spot cryptocurrency trading by December 1, 2026, Sergei Shvetsov, chairman of the exchange's supervisory board, said at the ACRA forum "Digital Finance" in Moscow. Depending on the instrument, transactions will be conducted both in quasi-dollars and in rubles.

"I hope that the regulatory acts will already have been issued by that point. The most important thing is that we intend to do this within a single clearing framework, so it will be convenient for participants," Shvetsov said, quoted by RBC Investments as reported by Kommersant.

Quasi-dollar settlement: a lesson from the 2020 experiment

Shvetsov recalled that the exchange had already gone through an unsuccessful experience of launching ruble-settled trading in foreign shares, which is why this time the venue will use quasi-dollar quotes - quotes denominated in dollars while settlements run in rubles. According to Shvetsov, this approach applies to foreign financial digital instruments.

The precedent dates back to August 2020, when MOEX opened trading in shares of foreign companies from the S&P 500 index. Trading and settlement were conducted in rubles on the exchange's own infrastructure, while dividends were paid in the original currency. The first listing batch included Apple, Boeing, Amazon, NVIDIA, Facebook, Microsoft and McDonald's shares; the second brought NIKE, Cisco Systems, PayPal and General Electric.

What the exchange already offers

While the spot segment is being prepared, the derivatives line is expanding. From September 22, 2026, the Moscow Exchange makes perpetual futures on five cryptocurrency indices available, the venue's press service said. Contracts are quoted in US dollars with settlements in Russian rubles, and the instrument does not involve delivery of the underlying asset. Only qualified investors may trade it, according to the exchange announcement.

• Bitcoin index - BTCUSDF;
• Ethereum index - ETHUSDF;
• Solana index - SOLUSDF;
• Ripple index - XRPUSDF;
• Tron index - TRXUSDF.

The exchange first launched futures tied to cryptocurrency prices in the summer of 2025; since then, qualified investors have been able to trade futures on Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Ripple and Tron.

The regulatory perimeter behind the December date

The December target follows the entry into force on September 1, 2026 of the law on cryptocurrency regulation in Russia. It allows Russian investors to legally buy and sell digital assets through authorised intermediaries, while the use of cryptocurrency as a means of payment inside the country remains prohibited.

On September 24, 2026, the Bank of Russia approved operating rules for crypto market participants - crypto exchangers, digital depositories and operators of information systems. Legal activity for such companies is possible only after inclusion in the central bank's special registers; the regulator set qualification requirements for management, regulated the register-keeping procedure and defined the data required for registration. The documents passed registration with the Ministry of Justice and enter into force on October 5, 2026. First Deputy Governor Vladimir Chistyukhin has said the first companies could obtain licences and enter the registers before the end of 2026, Kommersant reports.

The sequence of the market opening

1. September 1, 2026 - the cryptocurrency regulation law enters into force: legal trading via authorised intermediaries, payment use prohibited;
2. September 22, 2026 - perpetual futures on five cryptocurrency indices start trading, qualified investors only;
3. October 5, 2026 - Bank of Russia admission rules for exchangers, digital depositories and information system operators take effect;
4. December 1, 2026 - MOEX target date for technical readiness of spot crypto trading within a single clearing;
5. by the end of 2026 - first licences and register entries for market intermediaries.

What the register model means for participants

The legislative model distributes crypto operations between specialised intermediaries: purchases and sales go through crypto exchangers, organised trading goes through brokers and asset managers, and records of rights to assets are kept by digital depositories. All of them must appear in the regulator's register and be connected to licensed trade organisers. For digital depositories, minimum capital thresholds are set at 50 million rubles in the base case, 100 million rubles for work with foreign systems and more than 250 million rubles for settlement depositories.

For the exchange itself, the December date still depends on the publication of first-line regulatory acts. MOEX counts on the rules being in place by early winter so that intermediary registration can begin, while single clearing keeps digital assets inside the familiar exchange perimeter for brokers, market makers and their clients.