Moscow Exchange (MOEX), Russia’s largest stock exchange, will start cryptocurrency trading on December 1, 2026. The plan was confirmed by Boris Blokhin, the exchange’s senior managing director for sales and business development, in a report dated October 8.
The exchange is already testing the service with professional traders. “We will continue testing until launch. We plan to provide this cryptocurrency trading capability on December 1st, in line with the new legislation,” Blokhin said.
MOEX will not build a separate crypto venue. Under Russia’s new rules, the exchange can use its existing license as a trading organizer and the same infrastructure it runs for the stock market. A digital depository will settle the trades, and participants will need to open accounts with the depository.
The launch is part of Russia’s fast-moving rollout of regulated digital money. President Vladimir Putin signed the crypto market law in August, and it took effect on September 1. On October 6, the Bank of Russia published its first registers of authorized operators: four crypto exchange operators and five digital custodians. Sberbank, the country’s largest bank, made the custodian list and plans to launch its own crypto products on December 1, supporting Bitcoin, Ether, and USDT through its existing banking apps. 
Only three coins make the cut
The Bank of Russia has approved exactly three cryptocurrencies for trading on official venues: Bitcoin, Ether, and Tether’s USDT, chosen on market capitalization, trading volume, and overseas price history. Everything else stays off regulated exchanges unless it meets the central bank’s standards.
Access is tiered. Both qualified and non-qualified investors can participate after passing a knowledge test, but non-qualified investors are capped at 300,000 rubles (about $3,800) per year through each licensed intermediary. Qualified investors face no monetary cap.
Sberbank’s investment arm forecasts the regulated market could reach 3.5 to 4 trillion rubles in its first year, growing to around 7.5 trillion rubles (about $87 billion) by 2029. It also expects roughly 80 percent of activity to stay outside the regulated system in year one.
Russia still bans using crypto to pay for goods and services. What the December 1 launch creates is a state-supervised on-ramp: Bitcoin trading on the national stock exchange, inside a legal framework the central bank controls.
