U.S.-sanctioned Moscow Exchange to list bitcoin and Tether’s USDT in December
Russia's largest stock exchange will begin trading bitcoin, ether and Tether's USDT on December 1, despite both the exchange and its clearing house being under U.S. sanctions.
The exchange announced on Monday that trading will run from 06:50 to 23:50 Moscow time, matching its stock market hours. The National Clearing Centre will clear the trades, with same-day or next-day settlement and swaps for managing liquidity.
Sanctions complications
Both the exchange and its clearing house are under U.S. sanctions. The U.S. Treasury blocked Moscow Exchange and the National Clearing Centre in June 2024 and issued wind-down licenses for dealings with them.
USDT, the dollar stablecoin on the launch list, is issued by Tether, which freezes wallets that land on the Treasury's sanctions list.
Investor restrictions
Retail access comes with limits. Ordinary investors have to pass a test and can buy no more than 300,000 rubles of crypto a year, roughly $3,700, through a single broker. Qualified investors have no cap.
Trading under Russia's new crypto rules could reach as much as 4 trillion rubles, or about $49 billion at current rates in the first year.
Market expectations
In February, Deputy Finance Minister Ivan Chebeskov pegged Russia's crypto turnover at 50 billion rubles a day. Sberbank's first-year figure works out to about 11 billion rubles a day, so most of the flow would stay on offshore exchanges and peer-to-peer desks.
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