RB Markets · The desk · Thursday 12 November 2026

Russian bourses priced the crypto rules on Wednesday and held the gain Thursday

Moscow Exchange shares closed Thursday at 165.18 rubles, up 0.15%, according to the exchange's own trading record. SPB Exchange, the smaller listed venue, rose 0.94% to 181.9 rubles. The MOEX Russia Index gained 0.73% to 2,508.23, TASS reported.

Both operators had moved a session earlier, inside a broad rally. On Wednesday, Moscow Exchange rose 3.37% and SPB Exchange 4.52%, ahead of a 1.87% gain for the index, per ad-hoc-news. That was the day the Bank of Russia published an ordinance letting exchanges open crypto trading from Nov. 22, once it approves their rules, Bitcoin Magazine reported. The brief's dispatch appeared after Moscow's close. Thursday was the first session that could price it, and the buying had already happened.

What the price counted was a new business for licensed venues, the incumbents now drafting trading rules for the regulator to approve. What it left out was the shape of the market being opened. Buyers outside the qualified category may spend at most 300,000 rubles a year through any one intermediary. Qualified investors, the class certified as experienced, may buy any cryptoasset without a cap. The share gains went to the venue operators, while the ceiling falls on ordinary savers.

The desk makes no ruling today. Thursday's moves in both exchanges were too small to read as a response, and Wednesday's came before the evidence the tape can cite. Next, the tape will watch whether the central bank clears any venue's rules before Nov. 22. It will also watch how the operators close on their first day of crypto trading.

Sources

RB Markets is analysis of how value is being measured and mismeasured. It is not investment advice.