Saint-Petersburg Exchange launches Bitcoin futures trading

Saint-Petersburg Exchange (SPB), a major stock market in Russia, is now hosting futures trading for contracts based on the value of Bitcoin and BRICS assets.

The exchange began preparations to provide the service right after the Bank of Russia authorized the offering of crypto derivatives to qualified investors this past spring.

Russian exchange makes good on plans to offer Bitcoin futures

The stock exchange of Russia’s second-largest city, St. Petersburg, has kicked off trading of cash-settled futures on stock market assets from other BRICS members as well as on Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency by market cap.

“Futures on funds that track the stock indices of Brazil, India, China, and Saudi Arabia give investors access to the stock markets and economies of the BRICS members,” explained SPB’s CEO, Evgeny Serdyukov.

According to a press release published Tuesday, the exchange’s chief executive also highlighted:

“Another unique instrument is the BTCUSD index futures, which tracks the performance of the world’s most traded cryptocurrency, Bitcoin.”

The contract is based on the BTCUSD index tracking the shares of the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (exchange-traded fund). Pricing is in U.S. dollars, and the settlement currency is Russian ruble.

The offering of this kind of products became possible after, in May of this year, the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) issued a circular permitting financial firms to launch cryptocurrency derivatives on the domestic market.

The regulatory nod sparked a real race between established market players, including the Russia’s largest stock trading venue, the Moscow Exchange (MOEX), to present investors with such options.

MOEX commenced Bitcoin futures trading in early June, when it also started calculating its own Bitcoin index, with plans to issue a contract on it.

In July, the leading Russian stock exchange announced it’s going to offer futures on Ethereum (ETH), the second cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization.

All of these are currently available only to “highly qualified” investors, a category that includes corporate entities and persons meeting certain capital requirements.

For private individuals, this means proving bank deposits and security investments exceeding 100 million rubles (over $1.2 million) or annual income from the past year of at least 50 million rubles ($600,000).

The criteria for obtaining the status of a “superqual,” as these investors are often called by the Russian press, also include having a sufficient level of education in the field.

SPB using own technology for derivatives trading

In its futures announcement, the St. Petersburg Exchange remarked it’s employing in-house tech to underpin the trading of crypto derivatives, allowing it to add more contracts and options in the future.

Noting that the global derivatives market now around 5,000 underlying assets, the head of the SPB commented:

“We have created our own technology for trading derivative instruments, significantly expanding the capabilities of the SPB’s trading and clearing infrastructure.”

“Since all futures on SPB are cash-settled, they eliminate the infrastructure risks associated with the delivery of the underlying asset,” Serdyukov emphasized, quoted by the Prime news agency.

Just as with similar products on the Russian market, these are exclusively accessible for qualified investors. Trades in the other newly launched futures are available to non-qualified investors, clarifies the press release published on the platform’s website.

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