Moex offers futures that track the value of Ethereum

The Moscow Exchange, Russia’s largest stock market, will soon offer futures contracts that track the price of Ethereum, the largest cryptocurrency by post-Bitcoin market capitalization.

The platform said it would also present futures to U.S. Treasury bonds. This is the first time in the Russian Federation, and the increase in the yield of US government securities has attracted investors’ attention.

Russians begin trading futures on ETH

The Moscow Exchange (MOEX) is set to launch two new futures contracts in August, one of which will be tied to the value of the second most popular cryptocurrency, and the other will track the market dynamics of US government securities.

The exchange is set to commence futures contract trading at the Exchange Trading Fund (ETF) which invests in Ethereum (ETH), the managing director of derivatives markets, told RBC during an investment forum hosted by the Russian Business News Outlet.

Speaking about the bystanders at the Invest Weekend event, Patrikeeva elaborated.

“The underlying assets will be the ETF of the largest fund from BlackRock, an Ishares Ethereum Trust ETF investing in Ethereum, which estimate equals the cost of one share in the fund.

The announcement of the ETF-based product began trading Bitcoin futures in early June following the decision by the Russian Central Bank to allow Moex to provide crypto derivatives to qualified investors in the country.

In addition to Moex, many other major players in the Russian financial market have launched crypto-related equipment, including Russia’s largest bank by assets, the state-run SBER, and the leading Russian broker Finam.

The contract, whose first batch expired in September, is listed in the stock of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT), which tracks the price of Bitcoin (BTC), the leading cryptocurrency of market capitalization. Moex is also preparing to offer futures contracts based on its own Bitcoin index.

BTC recently hit a historic high of over $123,000 per coin on Monday, but has since fallen below $120,000. Late July 14th, IBIT futures were trading at around $70 per contract, but the IBIT fund, one share of its underlying assets, was under $76 on NASDAQ Exchange, RBC said.

By June 27, the open net position of Bitcoin futures retail investors in the Moscow exchange reached 1.25 billion rubles (over $16 million) in its latest “Financial Market Risk Overview” report last month.

Russian investors speculate about US debt

Another measure the Moscow exchange will offer next month will be based on long-term ETF investments in the US Treasury. The MOEX agreement is based on the value of one share in this fund.

The average maturity of bonds in the ETF portfolio is nearly 26 years, and the validity of government securities is 15.7 years.

Since President Donald Trump announced he would raise import duties, yields on long-term U.S. Treasury bonds have risen significantly, up to almost 5%, the RBC said. He also emphasized that this will be the first futures contract on the Moscow Exchange to track the dynamics of US debt securities.

Moex already provides Russian investors with access to approximately 12 contracts with underlying assets based on the S&P 500, Nasdaq, and Dow Jones, as well as the European and Asian stock market index.

As part of its plan to expand the geography of derivative offerings, the Russian Exchange has previously announced that it will launch two futures contracts on stocks traded on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.