Moscow Exchange Details Clearing and Settlement for Bitcoin, Ether and USDT Trades

Moscow Exchange (MOEX) has set out how its planned crypto market will work, saying trades in bitcoin, ether and USDT will go through the group’s central clearing and can settle the same day or the next day once the venue opens on Dec. 1.

From Dec. 1, clients will be able to trade with same-day (TOD) and next-day (TOM) settlement, and use swaps to manage liquidity.

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Routing crypto through the National Clearing Centre (NCC) lets brokers already connected to MOEX reach bitcoin through the clearing and settlement setup they use for securities, instead of a separate venue. It also places the exchange in the same launch window as banks preparing their own crypto offerings.

The exchange announced the details on Nov. 2, describing the venue as Russia’s first organized market for digital currencies. The first stage will be pilot deals, with participants connected step by step as they are ready. The Dec. 1 target itself is not new: a MOEX executive put it on the record in early October, and the release still frames the start as a plan.

Retail access stays narrow. Under Russian law, non-qualified investors can buy crypto only after passing a test, and only up to 300,000 rubles a year through a single broker.

The opening list is limited to BTC, ETH and USDT, available in both anonymous and addressed modes. MOEX said it expects to add more digital currencies and digital assets later, including both international and Russian instruments.

According to MOEX, crypto trading will run on the technology behind its stock market, and the deals will be included in the unified clearing of its clearing arm, NCC. Trading hours will mirror the stock market’s, from 6:50 a.m. to 11:50 p.m. Moscow time.

The market rests on Federal Law No. 282-FZ, “On Digital Currencies and Digital Rights,” whose main provisions took effect on Sept. 1, 2026, with some rules phasing in during July and September 2027.

Boris Blokhin, MOEX’s senior managing director for sales and business development, told reporters on Oct. 8 that testing with professional participants was underway. “We are actively testing. We started a week ago,” he said, according to Interfax.

The Bank of Russia began admitting firms to its crypto registers in October, and Sberbank landed on both of them. Sberbank said on Oct. 5 that its first crypto offerings were slated for Dec. 1, 2026, provided the central bank approves its application and the supporting rules are in place. VTB has said it plans to offer crypto trading in its VTB My Investments app in November and launch its own exchange in December, according to Interfax. Russian officials had moved to formalize crypto and stablecoin rules earlier in the year.

The MOEX release did not name the participants expected in the first pilot deals.

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