Russia Sets Nov. 22 Crypto Trading Date With a $3,600 Retail Cap

Russia's central bank has finally put a date on it. Exchanges can open organized crypto trading on Nov. 22, provided the regulator has already approved their trading rules. The ordinance was registered by the Justice Ministry on Nov. 3, published Wednesday, and takes effect ten days after publication.

The catch sits in the sequencing. A venue can't just flip a switch on the 22nd. It has to get its rulebook cleared first, and the Bank of Russia didn't say whether anyone has passed that review yet. Here's what matters: the gate is open, but nobody's confirmed they're walking through it.

The compliance load isn't small. Exchanges must register every broker, trust manager and central counterparty touching crypto, keep order and trade registers, monitor the activity, and calculate a current price, a weighted-average price, a market price and a closing price. Reporting to the regulator mirrors what they already file for equities. Same pipes, new asset.

Retail access actually lands five days earlier, on Nov. 17, through a separate ordinance. Bitcoin, ether and Tether's USDT are approved for non-qualified buyers, capped at 300,000 rubles a year per intermediary. That's about $3,600. Qualified investors get the whole menu with no ceiling. Both groups sit a knowledge test and read a risk disclosure before they can trade. The approved list stays deliberately thin: market cap, average daily volume and at least five years of pricing history on foreign venues.

Crypto still isn't a payment method inside Russia. Federal Law 282-FZ, whose main provisions took effect Sept. 1, treats it as property, licenses the venues, and opens a supervised channel for cross-border trade. That last part is the interesting one.

Moscow Exchange is still aiming for Dec. 1, starting as a pilot in BTC, ETH and USDT on its existing stock-market systems from 6:50 a.m. to 11:50 p.m. Moscow time. The National Clearing Centre handles clearing, and clients can settle same day or next. Notably, both MOEX and its clearing house already sit under U.S. sanctions. SPB Exchange wants to be live by year-end with a settlement depository of its own.

The reality is that $3,600 a year won't pull size off the offshore desks Russian traders already use. The prize is the cross-border settlement rail, and that's where volume will eventually show up. Watch whether the first venue actually opens on schedule.