TL;DR: Moscow Exchange plans to begin offering cryptocurrency trading from December 1 and says testing with professional market participants is already underway. Under Russia’s new framework, unqualified investors are expected to face limits on which assets they can buy and how much they can invest.

Russia‘s largest securities exchange is preparing to move from crypto derivatives into direct cryptocurrency trading.

Moscow Exchange plans to offer crypto transactions from December 1, according to senior managing director Boris Blokhin, who said the venue is already testing the service with professional market participants.

The planned launch follows a broader Russian regulatory framework that gives existing exchanges, brokers and asset managers a formal role in digital asset markets.

Moscow Exchange will use a partner digital depository for settlement, with market participants opening accounts through that infrastructure.

Blokhin said the exchange does not expect to need an additional permit or license for the launch beyond the framework already in place.

The service will not treat every investor equally.

Under the new rules, unqualified investors will be allowed to purchase a limited group of major crypto assets, including Bitcoin, Ethereum and USDT, and will face an annual investment cap through each intermediary.

Qualified investors will have broader access and will not be subject to the same amount limit.

That structure reflects Russia’s cautious approach to opening crypto markets.

The government is allowing investment and trading infrastructure to develop while maintaining tighter restrictions around ordinary consumers and the use of cryptocurrency for domestic payments.

Moscow Exchange has already gained experience with crypto-linked products.

The venue previously introduced perpetual futures tied to assets including Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Direct trading is a more significant step because it brings the underlying digital assets into established securities-market infrastructure rather than limiting investors to price exposure through derivatives.

It also gives Russia’s conventional financial institutions a stronger role.

Crypto trading in many countries developed around specialist exchanges that operated separately from banks and stock markets.

Russia is increasingly pushing the opposite model.

Existing regulated market institutions are being used as the rails through which digital assets can be bought, sold and recorded.

The exchange says testing began roughly a week ago and will continue ahead of the December launch.

That leaves time for settlement and operational systems to be tested before customers gain access.

There are still obvious questions.

Liquidity, available trading pairs, custody arrangements and the exact user experience will all determine whether investors actually migrate activity from existing crypto channels.

But Moscow Exchange brings something smaller venues cannot easily replicate: an established network of brokers, professional investors and financial institutions already connected to its market infrastructure.

If the December 1 launch goes ahead as planned, crypto trading in Russia will become considerably more integrated with the country’s traditional capital markets.

That is likely exactly what regulators want.

TL;DR: Russia’s new regulated crypto-market framework has moved into operation, with the Bank of Russia adding firms including VTB, Sberbank and several specialist operators to registers covering cryptocurrency exchanges and digital depositories. Domestic crypto payments remain restricted, but regulated trading and custody infrastructure is now taking shape.

Russia has begun turning its new cryptocurrency rules into an operating financial system.

The Bank of Russia’s framework for registering cryptocurrency exchanges and digital depositories took effect on October 5, and the regulator has begun admitting firms to the new market structure.

VTB has been added to the register of organizations permitted to exchange cryptocurrency.

The digital depository register includes major banks such as Sberbank and VTB alongside specialist infrastructure providers.

Other approved crypto-exchange operators include Zefir, Sistema Crypto and T-Invest Lab, according to information released around the register’s launch.

That represents a substantial shift in how Russia handles digital assets.

Crypto has not suddenly become unrestricted money inside the country.

The domestic prohibition on using cryptocurrency as payment for ordinary goods and services remains in place.

Instead, the new framework separates ownership and investment activity from the use of crypto as a parallel domestic currency.

Registered exchanges can provide regulated access to digital assets, while digital depositories handle services including recording and transferring crypto holdings and providing customers with access to wallet identifiers associated with their assets.

The involvement of major banks is particularly notable.

VTB has said it expects to begin opening crypto trading access through its investment business before expanding services further.

That gives the market a distinctly different shape from jurisdictions where crypto infrastructure developed almost entirely through independent exchanges.

In Russia, some of the country’s largest conventional financial institutions are moving directly into the regulated digital asset stack.

The Bank of Russia laid out the admission process in September, setting requirements for managers, documentation and ongoing registration.

Those rules formally came into force on October 5.

The result is not crypto liberalization in the conventional sense.

It is crypto being pulled into a state-supervised framework.

That distinction will matter for users and businesses.

A more formal system could give investors clearer custody and counterparty rules while simultaneously increasing regulatory visibility over where assets are held and how they move.

Russia has spent years balancing interest in digital assets against concerns around capital flows and monetary sovereignty.

Its new registers show where that balance is landing.

Crypto trading can exist.

But increasingly, Moscow wants to know exactly who is operating it.