Russian equities closed lower on Wednesday, with the MOEX Russia Index falling 1.93% as losses in Oil & Gas, Mining and Power sectors weighed on the market. According to Investing.com, declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 207 to 41, with only 7 stocks ending unchanged on the Moscow Stock Exchange. The Russian Volatility Index – RVI, which measures implied volatility of MOEX Russia Index options, was up 1.58% to 36.60, indicating heightened market uncertainty. In commodities trading, crude oil for October delivery fell 3.60% to $102.02 per barrel, while gold futures for December delivery declined 0.70% to $4,302.50 per troy ounce. The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.71% at 100.05, with USD/RUB remaining unchanged at 84.51 and EUR/RUB at 96.90.
Moscow Exchange has scheduled the September 22 launch of perpetual futures tied to Bitcoin, Ether, Solana, XRP and Tron indexes, with the cash-settled contracts restricted to qualified investors only. According to the exchange's official September 16 announcement, the products will operate as one-day futures with automatic rollover, giving investors exposure to cryptocurrency price movements without receiving or transferring the underlying digital assets. The contracts will be dollar-quoted, ruble-settled and automatically rolled using daily funding calculations under exchange specifications, with MOEX setting the K1 parameter at 0% and K2 at 0.35%. The structure differs from perpetual contracts commonly offered by offshore cryptocurrency exchanges, with collateral, variation margin and final settlement handled in Russian rubles. As per AMBCrypto, these perpetual contracts would continue to renew automatically daily, allowing traders to participate in cryptocurrencies through derivative products without requiring position closure at the end of each trading day.
The new contracts will track five indexes calculated by Moscow Exchange, with BTCUSDF referencing the MOEX Bitcoin Index and ETHUSDF following the exchange's Ether benchmark. SOLUSDF, XRPUSDF and TRXUSDF will track the corresponding Solana, XRP and Tron indexes. MOEX already offers monthly futures tied to the same five cryptocurrency indexes, with Bitcoin and Ether index futures beginning trading in November 2025, while contracts linked to Solana, XRP and Tron followed on May 14, 2026. Since May 13, the indexes have used prices from major cryptocurrency exchanges and update every 15 seconds during relevant trading periods. The design follows Bank of Russia's policy introduced in May 2025, allowing financial institutions to offer qualified investors derivatives, securities and digital financial assets linked to cryptocurrency prices, with one of the regulator's central conditions being that such products must not provide delivery of the underlying cryptocurrency.
MOEX reported that more than 72,000 qualified investors have traded its digital-asset futures since the exchange began offering crypto-linked contracts, with cumulative transaction volume exceeding 600 billion rubles (approximately $7 billion). The figures cover the previously launched crypto-derivatives range as a whole and do not represent trading in the five new perpetual futures, which have yet to launch. The exchange's current crypto derivatives product page shows average daily turnover of 2.5 billion rubles during August and a record daily volume of 10.2 billion rubles on August 21. MOEX's 2025 annual report indicated that more than 40,000 clients traded its crypto-linked contracts during that year, generating more than 212 billion rubles of turnover. As per AMBCrypto, the announced perpetual contracts could attract more liquidity into the derivatives market, with the professional-only structure potentially shaping how deeply this market develops. However, this concentration among qualified accounts also provides a limit to the amount of potential trading volume, though it does provide advantages in terms of large-scale institutional involvement.
Although each new contract will be quoted in U.S. dollars using its corresponding index value, MOEX said financial settlement will take place in Russian rubles, meaning investors will not need to hold Bitcoin, Ether, Solana, XRP or Tron to trade the products. The exchange describes all of its current crypto futures as settlement contracts, with no cryptocurrency changing hands at expiration or settlement. Unlike MOEX's existing monthly crypto-index contracts, the new instruments are one-day futures with automatic rollover. Russia's rules for these derivatives follow Bank of Russia regulations introduced in May 2025, restricting access to qualified investors only. The contracts do not involve the delivery of Bitcoin, Ether or other tokens, allowing investors to take positions on crypto price movements without using a digital wallet, stablecoins or a cryptocurrency exchange. As noted by AMBCrypto, the professional-only structure could shape how deeply this market develops, with retail investors unable to access the contracts, leaving liquidity concentrated among qualified accounts.
Maria Patrikeeva, managing director of the MOEX derivatives market, called the launch 'an important milestone in the development of the Russian derivatives market' and noted 'strong investor demand' for derivatives tied to digital assets. The new contracts will join Moscow Exchange's existing range of 31 perpetual futures covering currencies, equity and bond indices, precious metals, and Russian and foreign securities. MOEX introduced indexes for SOL, XRP, TRX and BNB in May using data from Binance, Bybit, OKX and Bitget, with SOL, XRP and TRX subsequently becoming underlying indexes for monthly futures and now receiving perpetual contracts. The exchange first introduced crypto derivatives in summer 2025, marking a significant milestone in Russia's regulated cryptocurrency trading infrastructure. As per AMBCrypto, Bitcoin and Ether could capture most early volume because they already have established demand, while stronger participation in Solana, XRP, and Tron would show that the market is expanding beyond just Bitcoin and Ether. Rising open interest alongside sustained volume would point to deeper positioning, with the September 22 launch showing whether existing professional demand can translate into deeper liquidity.
