Moscow Exchange is preparing a breakthrough: perpetual futures on bitcoin and Ethereum will appear as early as September
The Moscow Exchange is making a significant step in the development of crypto derivatives, announcing the launch of the first perpetual contracts on digital assets. As early as September, qualified investors will gain access to perpetual futures tied to Bitcoin and Ethereum indices. This event marks a new milestone in the institutionalization of the crypto market in Russia.
In my assessment, the emergence of perpetual futures on a regulated platform is not just an expansion of the instrument lineup, but a signal of growing demand from institutional players who need advanced hedging mechanisms without being tied to a specific expiration date. Such contracts are automatically rolled over to the next trading day, relieving investors of the need to manually shift positions between issues.
What exactly is the exchange launching?
The platform's derivatives market has already been expanded with quarterly and monthly futures on BTC, ETH, Solana, Ripple, and Tron. Now the focus shifts to perpetual instruments. The first two contracts on the indices of the major cryptocurrencies will arrive in September. Plans include expanding to ten underlying coins, as well as launching perpetual futures on popular foreign stocks, including Amazon, AMD, Tesla, and Netflix.
The exchange's activity is impressive: over the current year, 34 new instruments have already appeared on the derivatives market, and about 30 more are expected to launch by the end of the year. This points to a systematic strategy for saturating the market with diverse derivatives.
Synchronous expansion of trading infrastructure
In parallel with the launch of new products, the exchange is modernizing the trading process. From September 14, the main session will begin at 9:00 instead of 10:00 and will last ten hours, affecting the stock, derivatives, currency markets, and the precious metals market. This decision is driven by investor requests, especially from Siberia and the Far East, for whom the extra hour creates more comfortable conditions for transactions.
The strengthening of the supervisory function is also keeping pace with the times. The exchange has implemented an AI-based system to identify trades with signs of manipulation and insider trading. Automating routine checks is becoming critically important amid the growing number of instruments and the lengthening trading day.
My verdict: the launch of perpetual futures on crypto indices is a logical step for the Moscow Exchange, which seeks to carve out a niche between traditional finance and digital assets. However, success will depend on liquidity and investors' readiness to perceive crypto derivatives as a full-fledged asset class in a regulated field. In the long term, this could become a bridge for broader adoption of cryptocurrencies in Russia.