Moscow Exchange bets on perpetual contracts: perpetual futures on BTC and ETH launch in September
The Moscow Exchange is preparing for a significant step in the development of crypto derivatives: the first perpetual futures tied to bitcoin and Ethereum indices will appear on the platform as early as September. This decision opens a new chapter for institutional investors, who until now have been limited only to futures instruments with a fixed expiration date.
What exactly the exchange is launching
According to my information, we are talking about two perpetual contracts that will become pioneers in the line of perpetual instruments for cryptocurrencies. Currently, qualified investors already have access to quarterly and monthly futures on BTC, ETH, Solana, Ripple, and Tron. However, perpetual contracts are a fundamentally different format: they do not require manual rollover of positions between expiries, as they are automatically extended every trading day. This significantly simplifies capital management and reduces operational costs for traders.
The exchange is not limited to cryptocurrencies alone. There are plans to expand the line of perpetual futures to foreign stocks, including such popular securities as Amazon, AMD, Tesla, and Netflix. It is expected that the number of such contracts will soon reach approximately 20. Moreover, the platform intends to increase the number of underlying crypto assets to ten, which indicates a long-term strategy to capture market share in digital derivatives.
Simultaneous expansion of trading infrastructure
The launch of new instruments coincides with a large-scale restructuring of the trading schedule. From September 14, the main session will begin at 9:00 a.m. instead of 10:00 and will last ten hours, affecting the equity, derivatives, currency markets, and the precious metals market. This decision is driven by requests from institutional participants, especially from Siberia and the Far East, for whom the additional hour creates more comfortable conditions for executing transactions.
In parallel, the exchange is strengthening control over trading. The implementation of an artificial intelligence-based system for detecting manipulative trades and insider trading is becoming critically important amid the growing number of instruments and increased trading hours. Automating routine checks allows processing hundreds of thousands of transactions, ensuring market transparency.
My expert assessment: The launch of perpetual futures on crypto indices is not just an expansion of the product line, but a signal of the maturity of the Russian derivatives market. However, investors should remember the specifics of perpetual contracts: they involve risks of position funding, especially during periods of high volatility. Nevertheless, for institutional players, this is a step toward the legalization and standardization of crypto trading within a regulated framework.