Moscow Exchange to Launch BTC, ETH and USDT Trading Dec. 1

Moscow Exchange will start organized trading of bitcoin, ether and USDT on Dec. 1, 2026, according to the exchange's press service, as reported by Klerk and Profile. Senior managing director Boris Blokhin discussed the plans on Oct. 31. Trading will run on the exchange's stock-market infrastructure.

Details

Sessions will run from 6:50 a.m. to 11:50 p.m. Moscow time. Same-day (TOD) and next-day (TOM) settlement will be available, along with swaps for liquidity management. Clients will get access through professional market participants, i.e. brokers.

Non-qualified investors can buy digital currency only after passing a test, with a limit of 300,000 rubles a year through one broker, per the exchange's statement quoted by Klerk. Blokhin said the three assets were chosen because they meet the regulator's criteria for non-qualified investors. Testing with market participants has been under way since mid-October.

The launch rests on Russia's law on digital currency and digital rights, which took effect Sept. 1, 2026. Paying for goods and services in crypto remains banned in Russia, and both Moscow Exchange and its clearing center are under US, UK and EU sanctions, Cointelegraph notes.

What it means for the market

The global market is unlikely to notice: the cap of 300,000 rubles (about $3,700) per broker limits inflows from retail investors, and trading will take place in rubles on the domestic market. For Russian users it is another legal way to buy BTC and ETH, as international exchanges such as Bitget and MEXC close to Russian clients.

For reference, BTC traded near $77,350 at 8:25 AM ET; the live price is in the daily brief. Coin page: Bitcoin.