Moscow Exchange Targets December 1 for Bitcoin, Ethereum and USDT Trading

Moscow Exchange has circled December 1 as the day it flips the switch on crypto trading, announcing on November 2 that it will stand up what it calls Russia's first organized digital currency market. Bitcoin, Ethereum and Tether's USDT will be the first assets on the board. The venue will run on the same stock-market tech traders already know, with the National Clearing Centre handling settlement.

The plumbing is deliberately familiar: same-day and next-day settlement, known as TOD and TOM, plus swap transactions to help desks manage liquidity. Hours will mirror the equities session, 6:50 a.m. to 11:50 p.m. Moscow time. Moscow Exchange says it will start with pilot trades and plug in more participants as they're ready.

Retail access comes with a leash. Under the Bank of Russia's finalized rules, non-qualified investors can buy BTC, ETH and USDT up to a combined 300,000 rubles a year through each individual intermediary — and only after passing a test and signing off that they understand the risks. Qualified investors dodge the asset-list and purchase caps, but still have to sit the test. Those rules kick in November 17, a separate milestone landing two weeks before the exchange's target date.

Two big clouds hang over the launch. Both Moscow Exchange and its clearing subsidiary were sanctioned by the United States in June 2024, which raises hard questions about how international counterparties and digital-asset providers will deal with the new infrastructure. And USDT brings its own wrinkle: Tether freezes wallets tied to sanctioned entities, leaving open how that policy plays out for stablecoins sitting in the exchange's clearing system.

Skeptics are already doubting the pitch. Exved founder Sergey Mendeleev questioned whether the venue can be attractive at all, warning that trading spreads could leave ordinary investors worse off than they'd be elsewhere. The bigger fight is against offshore exchanges and the peer-to-peer markets Russians already use.

For Bitcoin and Ethereum, it's one more traditional exchange cracking the door open to digital assets. For Moscow Exchange, the pilot phase will reveal whether brokers and institutions actually show up. Liquidity, trading costs, regulatory clarity and the sanctions overhang will decide if this becomes a real market or a quiet experiment.