Moscow Exchange confirms a December 1 start for bitcoin, ether and USDT trading under Russia's new crypto rules

Moscow Exchange has repeated that it will open crypto trading on December 1. Boris Blokhin, the exchange's senior managing director for sales and business development, said so on October 31 at the Smartlab investment conference, Izvestia and crypto.news reported, naming bitcoin, ether and Tether's USDT as the first three assets.

Trading would run on the exchange's stock market infrastructure, with orders placed in an order book and swap operations available to manage liquidity. Customers' coins would be stored and recorded by partner digital depositories, and brokers would give access. Blokhin said several organizations are already testing the systems and that a pilot launch is planned for December.

Retail access comes with limits. At the start, only assets that meet the regulator's requirements for non-qualified investors can trade, Izvestia reported. crypto.news and FinanceFeeds say those investors must pass a knowledge test and can buy up to 300,000 rubles a year of eligible coins through each intermediary. crypto.news ties the plan to Russia's new cryptocurrency rules, which it says took effect on September 1. FinanceFeeds reported the December 1 target on October 8, so the news this weekend is confirmation and detail rather than a new date.