Moscow Exchange to Launch Bitcoin and USDT Trading in December
nashnova research
Russia's largest securities exchange will open spot trading in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and USDT on December 1, projecting first-year volume at $49 billion — but the exchange itself is already under U.S. sanctions, and Tether has a track record of freezing sanctioned wallets, making compliance risk the defining question.
What will the exchange list, and how?
Moscow Exchange opens spot trading in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and USDT starting December 1.
Trading runs 06:50–23:50 Moscow time, mirroring equity-market hours. This means → crypto is being slotted into the traditional exchange framework as a regular financial product.
Clearing goes through the National Clearing Center, with same-day or next-day settlement and liquidity-management swap tools — contracts that help institutions manage short-term cash positions.
Why is compliance the biggest risk?
Both Moscow Exchange and the National Clearing Center were placed on the U.S. Treasury sanctions list in June 2024; a transition-period license was issued alongside.
The listed USDT is issued by Tether, which has frozen wallets flagged on U.S. sanctions lists before. This means → even with the exchange door open, Tether can choke the asset pipeline at any moment.
In plain terms = the seller is sanctioned, and the product's supplier has a history of cooperating with those very sanctions — buyers face not "will it drop?" but "can my money get in and out?"
How much can ordinary investors buy?
Retail investors must pass a qualification test first; annual purchases through any single broker are capped at 300,000 rubles (roughly $3,700).
Qualified investors face no such cap. This means → Russian regulators treat crypto as a high-risk product, filtering participants with thresholds and limits.
Is the $49 billion forecast realistic?
Moscow Exchange deputy chairman Anatoly Popov told TASS that first-year trading volume under the new rules could reach 4 trillion rubles (about $49 billion).
This reflects confidence in domestic crypto demand — but whether the number materializes depends on whether international clearing channels can function under sanctions pressure.
In plain terms = the projection is bold, but if Tether freezes assets or international banks refuse to clear, that volume stays on paper.
市场有风险，内容仅供研究参考，不构成投资建议。