Russia Crypto Trading Starts November 22: The Rules

The Bank of Russia said on November 11, 2026 that Russian exchanges may begin organised trading in cryptocurrencies from November 22, provided the regulator has approved their trading rules. The Ministry of Justice has registered the ordinance that sets the requirements.

This is a regulatory milestone, not a market event. No exchange is automatically allowed to trade crypto on November 22, and the central bank’s statement is careful about that condition.

What the ordinance requires of exchanges

Register crypto trading participants, including brokers, trust managers and central counterparties.
Maintain registers of orders and transactions.
Monitor trading activity.
Calculate price indicators: current, weighted-average, market and closing prices.
Report trading progress and results to the Bank of Russia using the same procedures already applied to other assets.

Read as a group, these are the plumbing requirements of a real exchange market: identifying who is trading, keeping an auditable record, publishing a reference price and reporting to the supervisor. Nothing in the central bank’s notice describes consumer protections, deposit insurance or compensation arrangements.

Moscow Exchange’s plan

Moscow Exchange has said it plans to launch crypto trading on December 1, 2026, after the rules take effect, with Bitcoin, Ether and USDT initially. Reporting on the exchange’s plans puts trading hours at 6:50 a.m. to 11:50 p.m. Moscow time, with brokers providing investor access and a partner digital depository handling custody and settlement.

Those details come from reporting by crypto.news citing Interfax and MOEX statements, not from the central bank’s notice, and exchange plans can change.

The retail rules

Separate rules for non-qualified investors are reported to take effect on November 17, five days before the exchange framework. Coverage of those rules describes an annual purchase limit of 300,000 rubles for non-qualified investors, an exam requirement and access to a narrow list of assets.

Those specifics are reported by crypto.news, Cryptobriefing and Bitcoin Magazine rather than stated in the Bank of Russia’s November 11 notice. Treat the 300,000-ruble figure as the reported rule and check the central bank’s own text before relying on it.

Why this is happening now

The framework builds on Federal Law No. 282-FZ, which took effect on September 1, 2026 and created a regulated structure for exchanges, brokers, exchange service providers and digital depositories. The November ordinance is the operational layer: what exchanges must actually do to be allowed to run the market.

What it does not mean

Three cautions, because this is the sort of story that gets read as a price signal:

Permission is not demand. A regulated venue opening does not guarantee liquidity, tight spreads or institutional participation.
The market is falling. Bitcoin traded below $72,000 on November 12, 2026, its lowest in about twelve weeks, amid ETF outflows and a broader risk-asset selloff. Opening a new venue into that tape is not a bullish catalyst by itself.
Access is local. These rules govern Russian exchanges and Russian investors. They do not create a route for most readers outside Russia, and sanctions rules elsewhere still apply.

Crypto remains volatile and this article is not investment advice. If you are trying to understand how custody is being regulated elsewhere, our explainer on the SEC’s crypto custody proposal covers the US approach, and the Binance hack safety checklist is the practical counterpart.

What we did not do

We did not trade, and we have no position in any asset mentioned. The requirements and dates in the first section come from the Bank of Russia’s November 11 notice. The Moscow Exchange launch details, trading hours and the 300,000-ruble retail cap are attributed to the outlets that reported them, because they are not in the central bank’s notice.