Rubles meet crypto: Moscow’s new market opens with a sanctions asterisk

Moscow Exchange plans to launch trading in Bitcoin ($BTC), Ether ($ETH) and Tether’s USDT on Dec. 1, establishing what it describes as Russia’s first organized digital currency market. Pilot trades will begin as participants join the platform, using the exchange’s existing stock-market infrastructure and clearing through the National Clearing Center (NCC).

Trading will run from 6:50 am to 11:50 pm Moscow time, with same-day and next-day settlement supported alongside swap transactions. Under the exchange’s rules, non-qualified investors must pass a test before purchasing crypto and will be limited to purchases of 300,000 rubles (about $3,700) annually per broker.

The launch follows a Russian crypto law whose main provisions took effect Sept. 1. The law permits regulated cryptocurrency trading while retaining a ban on cryptocurrency payments for goods and services in Russia. A separate measure is planned to ban direct peer-to-peer crypto trades starting July 2027.

Moscow Exchange and the NCC have been under US sanctions since June 2024, with the exchange also sanctioned by the UK and added to the European Union’s sanctions list in July 2026. The UK sanctioned Sergey Mendeleev, founder of Russian cross-border payments platform Exved, on May 26.

Mendeleev 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. He compared the planned offering to precious metals accounts at Russian lender Sberbank, where customers trade account balances without taking possession of physical metal, and warned investors could face “absolutely outrageous spreads.” “For ordinary non-qualified investors, this is an entirely unattractive and unprofitable proposition,” he said.

Mendeleev said the platform could support cross-border payments if importers and exporters bought and sold crypto directly with one another, but questioned whether another intermediary would be competitive in a market where traders negotiate price differences as small as 0.05%. “I hope this will mark a genuine breakthrough for foreign trade,” he said. Helen Partz contributed reporting.