Moscow Exchange Plans to Launch Bitcoin, Ethereum and USDT Trading on December 1

November 4: According to CoinDesk, Moscow Exchange, Russia's largest stock exchange, plans to launch Bitcoin, Ethereum and USDT trading starting December 1, with trading hours from 06:50 to 23:50 Moscow time. Clearing will be handled by the National Settlement Depository, using same-day or next-day settlement, and swap instruments will be available to manage liquidity. Retail investors must pass a test and can purchase at most 300,000 rubles (about $3,700) of crypto assets per year through a single broker, while qualified investors have no cap.

Both Moscow Exchange and the National Settlement Depository were sanctioned by the US Treasury in June 2024. The report noted that USDT is issued by Tether, and that Tether freezes wallets on the US Treasury's sanctions list. Anatoly Popov, vice chairman of Moscow Exchange, previously said that under the new rules, Russia's crypto trading volume could reach 4 trillion rubles, or about $49 billion, in the first year.