Russian Crypto Market Moves with Futures and Regulatory Developments

The St. Petersburg Exchange has started testing futures trading on the Bitcoin index. There's a joke that if the SPB Exchange begins offering futures on buckwheat, they will also operate through unfriendly depositories, and hopes are that the exchange has learned something and will avoid storing crypto through European "layers". Additionally, the Moscow Exchange plans to launch futures linked to Bitcoin in June, and Sberbank intends to offer cryptocurrency-linked bonds to investors. Sberbank also announced it is ready to become a market maker and liquidity provider for Russian regulated crypto platforms, where "super-magnificent qualified investors" will be allowed to trade cryptocurrencies within an experimental legal regime. The Central Bank of Russia stated that the amount of cryptocurrencies held in Russian wallets grew by 27% over six months, with a total of 827 billion rubles. Skepticism exists since Pavel Durov reportedly holds more crypto than this sum, but this figure reflects only exchange-held assets. The actual crypto holdings of Russian citizens likely exceed this amount. In conclusion, there is a sense of positive movement in crypto regulation and infrastructure in Russia, but some are late to the game, having already bought without restrictions, and calls for Bitcoin ETFs are emerging.