Moscow Exchange to launch SOL, XRP, TRX futures May 14

Moscow Exchange, Russia’s largest securities marketplace, will launch settlement-based futures on Solana (SOL), Ripple’s XRP, and Tron (TRX) on May 14, widening its crypto derivatives lineup beyond the Bitcoin and Ether contracts it introduced last spring.

The indices underpinning the new products, tickered MOEXSOL, MOEXXRP, and MOEXTRX, will be published May 13, the exchange said on Friday. The contracts settle in Russian rubles with no delivery of the underlying cryptocurrency, a structure that sidesteps the custody and capital-control complications that would accompany physically settled digital-asset derivatives under Russia’s current legal framework.

All three futures carry one-month maturities. The last trading day for each contract is the final Friday of the month, and the settlement price is set against the average of the MOEX Foreign Digital Currency Index between 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. Moscow time on expiry day. Solana contracts trade in $0.01 increments at $0.01 per step, while XRP and TRX futures use $0.0001 ticks, also priced at $0.01 per increment.

Trading is initially limited to qualified investors. A digital currency bill under consideration in the State Duma, with a July 1 statutory deadline, would extend access to non-qualified investors under caps the central bank is yet to specify.

What the exchange said

Maria Patrikeeva, head of derivatives at Moscow Exchange, called the rollout a “logical development” for a venue where more than 62,000 derivatives clients have already traded crypto-linked contracts since the exchange entered the asset class.

“The exchange offers access to major cryptocurrencies without the need to use foreign exchanges,” Patrikeeva said, a framing that carries weight in a jurisdiction where Western sanctions have curtailed access to dollar-cleared markets and dollar-denominated payment rails since 2022.

The three new underlyings rank among the ten largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalisation. Solana, at roughly $68 billion in market cap, is the third-largest smart-contract platform after Ethereum and BNB Chain. XRP, issued by Ripple Labs, is the fifth-largest token at about $49 billion and is widely used for cross-border settlement. Tron, at roughly $22 billion, dominates stablecoin transfer volumes, particularly for USDT.

The sanctions backdrop

MOEX’s crypto expansion tracks a deliberate Russian policy shift toward domestic digital-asset infrastructure. The Bank of Russia, which opposed retail crypto exposure for years, approved the exchange’s entry into crypto derivatives in spring 2025. Since then, MOEX has introduced futures on Bitcoin and Ether directly, as well as derivatives linked to BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) and iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA), the two largest US-listed spot crypto ETFs.

In February, the exchange signalled plans to add perpetual futures on Bitcoin and Ether, contracts with no expiry date that account for the bulk of trading volume on offshore venues such as Binance and Bybit. Perpetuals would mark a significant escalation in product sophistication for a regulated exchange that has so far offered only dated futures.

The central bank is drafting comprehensive crypto market rules based on a regulatory concept paper released in December. The proposed framework includes licensed exchanges, mandatory segregation of client assets, and prudential capital requirements for trading venues. If enacted, it would position MOEX as the central price-discovery venue for Russian crypto markets, analogous to the role the exchange plays in Russian equities, bonds, and foreign exchange.

The qualified-investor restriction is a near-term constraint, limiting the addressable market to institutional and high-net-worth participants. The Duma bill’s July 1 deadline suggests the legislature is prioritising the retail-access question. How aggressively the central bank sets the non-qualified investor caps will determine how fast MOEX’s crypto futures volumes scale beyond the 62,000-client base Patrikeeva cited.

The contract design itself is a practical choice: cash-settled, ruble-denominated, no physical delivery. Physical settlement would require licensed crypto custodians operating under Russian law, an infrastructure layer that does not yet exist at scale. Cash settlement against an exchange-administered index lets MOEX add underlyings quickly without building custody rails first.

How it compares globally

Russia is one of several jurisdictions building regulated crypto derivatives markets. CME Group has listed Bitcoin and Ether futures in Chicago since 2017 and 2021, respectively. Eurex, the Deutsche Boerse subsidiary, added BTC and ETH futures in 2024. The Dubai Financial Services Authority authorised crypto derivatives on the Dubai Mercantile Exchange in 2025. Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing launched crypto futures in late 2025.

MOEX’s structural advantage is its existing domestic investor base. With more than 62,000 clients already active in crypto-linked products and no reliance on Western clearing infrastructure, the exchange can channel flow that might otherwise migrate to unregulated offshore platforms. The addition of SOL, XRP, and TRX broadens the product set beyond the BTC-ETH pair that defines most regulated derivatives venues, giving MOEX a wider onshore crypto offering than many of its international peers.

The contracts go live May 14, with the first expiry falling on May 29.