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- Confidence indicator: why is the Moscow Exchange increasing the number of cryptocurrency indexes
Confidence indicator: why is the Moscow Exchange increasing the number of cryptocurrency indexes
The Moscow Exchange is expanding the range of cryptocurrency indexes published on the site. Starting from May 13, their number will increase to six. In the future, the exchange plans to increase the number of calculated indicators to 10. Such indexes increase the transparency and legitimacy of the market, acting as a guideline on the basis of which financial companies can create legal products for investors. What the increase in the number of indicators will lead to is in the Izvestia article.
Getting into the top ten
On May 13, the Moscow Stock Exchange will begin calculating and publishing indexes of four more digital currencies, bringing their total number to six. The list will include solana (MOEXSOL), ripple (MOEXXRP), tron (MOEXTRX) and binance coin (MOEXBNB).
For the first time, the Moscow Exchange began calculating cryptocurrency indicators in June 2025. Then the trading platform began to publish the bitcoin index (MOEXBTC). Since October of the same year, the exchange has been calculating and posting the ether index (MOEXETH).
In the future, the platform plans to increase the number of indicators to 10. The list can be supplemented by dogecoin (MOEXDOGE), cardano (MOEXADA), hyperliquid (MOEXHYPE) and chainlink (MOEXLINK).
Data from several crypto exchanges will be used to calculate all indexes of foreign digital currencies. 50% of the information will come from Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange in terms of trading volume, and 20% from Bybit, based in the UAE. One of the oldest OKX crypto exchanges in the world and specializing in spot and derivative (futures) trading, Bitget, will account for 15% each.
In the future, the indicators can be used as base assets for financial instruments, the press service of the trading platform told Izvestia.
Another innovation, which will take effect on May 13, concerns the approach to calculating the indexes presented on the site. Now they are calculated once a day and published no later than 18:00. The Moscow Exchange is going to calculate indicators every 15 seconds throughout the trading day, as well as in additional sessions on the weekend.
Expanding the toolkit
First of all, expanding the range of digital currency indices is an attempt to institutionalize the crypto market within the Russian financial infrastructure, according to investment adviser to the registry of the Central Bank, founder of the online investment university "Financology" Yulia Kuznetsova.
"The availability of official indicators allows us to form transparent price benchmarks, create an analytical base and gradually prepare the market for the emergence of regulated instruments related to digital assets," she explains.
In fact, the Moscow Exchange is currently building infrastructure, which is a standard stage of market development, the Izvestia interlocutor notes. First there are indexes and analytics, then products for qualified investors, and only then there is broader integration.
In particular, cryptocurrency indexes allow you to create a base for the introduction of mutual funds (mutual funds) and derivative financial instruments (futures and options). Such derivatives will give investors the opportunity to conduct transactions through domestic infrastructure in Russian jurisdiction instead of using foreign crypto platforms, which will significantly reduce the risks associated with account locks and restrictive actions of foreign crypto exchanges, says Sergey Kiselyov, associate professor of practice at the Higher School of Business of the National Research University Higher School of Economics.
"This will allow Russian investors, without entering the unregulated crypto market, to perform operations with instruments that maximally replicate the price dynamics of the corresponding cryptocurrencies," the expert clarifies.
At the same time, the indexes themselves do not solve the problem of blocking on foreign crypto exchanges, because they do not replace the storage or trading infrastructure, warns Kuznetsova. But they do reduce some of the market and information risks.
— The appearance of official Russian indicators creates a local source of market data that can be used by banks, brokers, investment platforms and companies within the country. This is an important step towards forming our own crypto infrastructure that is less dependent on external restrictions and sanctions risks," the investment adviser is convinced.
The Moscow Stock Exchange confirmed to Izvestia that the indices and calculated derivatives on them provide investors with a clear exchange benchmark for the dynamics of digital currencies and allow them to open a position on changes in the value of an asset through the Russian exchange infrastructure and the familiar broker application.
—At the same time, settlement futures do not involve the purchase, storage and transfer of digital currency, which means that the associated operational risks and costs are excluded," the press service of the trading platform emphasized.
Maria Patrikeeva, Managing Director of the Moscow Exchange derivatives Market, shared plans to launch futures trading for new cryptocurrencies, as well as perpetual futures for such assets, at an Exchange forum in mid-April.
"In May, we plan to launch futures for four more cryptocurrencies. We plan to launch perpetual futures in June and July," she said.
In general, the crypto asset futures segment appeared on the Moscow Stock Exchange last summer. Since the launch, according to the site, the trading volume has exceeded 400 billion rubles. The deals were signed by more than 62 thousand investors. So far, futures on bitcoin and ether indices, as well as futures on shares of funds that track the value of these cryptocurrencies, are available to qualified investors.
Balance of regulation
The work of the Moscow Exchange in this direction coincides with the government's policy on regulating the digital currency market. In accordance with the legislative and regulatory requirements, index calculation methods and subsequent specifications of futures contracts are subject to mandatory approval by the Bank of Russia, Sergey Kiselyov recalls.
"The approval of the relevant documents clearly shows that the Bank of Russia, at least, does not object to expanding the list of digital currency indices calculated on the Moscow Stock Exchange," he believes.
The regulator's position on this issue remains quite clear — the Central Bank believes that cryptocurrencies are a high-risk investment instrument, since they are not issued or guaranteed by any jurisdiction, and are also subject to increased volatility and sanctions risks, but allows the use of instruments linked to them.
Back in May last year, the Bank of Russia published a document securing the right of qualified investors to deal with derivatives for digital currencies. And in July, the Central Bank announced that it plans to discuss with investors the possibility of creating mutual funds for investments in cryptocurrency.
In November, Olga Shishlyannikova, director of the Central Bank's Department of Investment Financial Intermediaries, announced the regulator's intention to allow mutual fund management companies to invest in cryptocurrency-linked instruments in the first quarter of 2026. However, there is currently no new information on this issue.
At the same time, at the end of the same 2025, the Bank of Russia announced the preparation of a concept for regulating cryptocurrencies in the Russian market. In particular, she admits that both qualified and unskilled investors will be able to purchase crypto assets.
All this suggests that the Bank of Russia still takes a rather tough position regarding the free circulation of cryptocurrencies for the population, but at the same time allows their use in the framework of foreign economic activity, experimental legal regimes and infrastructure projects, emphasizes Yulia Kuznetsova.
—The actions of the Moscow Exchange correlate well with the current position of the regulator: we are not talking about the complete legalization of cryptocurrencies as a means of payment within the country, but the state is gradually moving towards a model of controlled and regulated use of digital assets," she explains.
Build a foundation
Another area on which the concept is focused is the regulation of the digital financial assets market (CFA), some of which are linked to the exchange rate of cryptocurrencies. Apparently, the expansion of the Moscow Stock Exchange's line of cryptocurrency indices is part of the process of forming the CFA market in the Russian legal field, since transparent and regulatory-recognized indicators make it possible to correctly assess the value of such instruments.
Such a "whitewashing" of the market is useful for institutional investors — large funds and banks cannot invest in the "gray" zone, they need clear rules of the game. Expanding the number of indexes gives them the opportunity to diversify their portfolios within the framework of the usual exchange infrastructure.
Cross-border payments also simplify the creation of indicators. In fact, the cryptocurrency index provides entrepreneurs with its "official" exchange rate, which companies can use when concluding contracts and making payments in order to avoid disagreements when assessing the value of goods.
— It is important for businesses to understand at what price to take digital currency into account in reporting, how to assess the risks of volatility and what benchmarks to rely on when calculating with counterparties. When indexes are calculated by the country's largest exchange platform, it increases confidence in the quotes themselves and simplifies the integration of digital assets into corporate financial processes," says Yulia Kuznetsova.
The expansion of the index range primarily creates transparent market benchmarks for a wide range of digital currencies, the Moscow Exchange confirms. For businesses, they can be useful as an independent benchmark for assessing market dynamics, analyzing volatility, and managing price risks.
Sergey Kiselyov expects that the opportunity to hedge the latter, which will be provided to companies by the emergence of cryptocurrency futures, should also increase the efficiency and predictability of their use in cross-border settlements.
All this suggests that spontaneous interest in cryptocurrencies is increasingly turning into a regulated, transparent and convenient financial market. And the expansion of cryptocurrency indexes can be considered a step towards creating an information foundation for this process.
"The launch of new indexes is actually a signal that the digital asset market can no longer be ignored, and the government's task now is not to ban it completely, but to integrate it into a regulated financial system with clear rules, transparency and risk control," concludes Kuznetsova.
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