- Four new Moscow Exchange cryptocurrency indices received an unexpected assessment from a Western financier.
- Given the sales of gold reserves, this was perceived as an attempt to create alternative reserves.
Moscow Exchange (MOEX) recently expanded its range of tools for working with digital assets, a development that attracted the attention of international experts.
On estimated According to Western financial analyst Pumpius, in early 2026, Russia liquidated approximately 900,000 ounces of gold to cover its budget deficit under ongoing sanctions. This reduced the country’s total gold reserves to 73,9 million ounces, the lowest level since February 2022.

Decline in Russian gold reserves. Bloomberg data
The decline in gold reserves, coupled with the expansion of MOEX’s cryptocurrency offerings, led Pumpius to conclude that Russia is seeking alternatives to traditional reserves. Furthermore, he doesn’t rule out the possibility of a centralized registry. Ripple (XRP) is “under discussion” for high-level cross-border payments and sanctions evasion.
He said Russian officials or the Central Bank are holding high-level meetings planning to use XRP to circumvent global sanctions. Of course, this doesn’t sound like financial analysis, but rather pure fiction.
His vision of Russia’s macroeconomic processes depicts bureaucrats exchanging gold bars for digital tokens in a desperate attempt to move funds, failing to understand that Russian public finances are based on a deeply pragmatic strategy, not on speculative Web3 trends.
Theoretically, the registry XRP Ledger provides fast and low-cost international transactions thanks to its fast consensus model. However, MOEX’s launch of the MOEXXRP index is an internal market tool, not a state-sponsored geopolitical weapon.
Based on Bitcoin indices and Ethereum, launched back in 2025, recently the Moscow Exchange presented Four new cryptocurrency indices: Solana (MOEXSOL), XRP (MOEXXRP), TRON (MOEXTRX) and BNB (MOEXBNB). The exchange also promotes futures contracts for these tokens to provide Russian traders with regulated hedging tools.
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