- Russia sold around 900,000 ounces of gold in early 2026 to address budget deficits.
- The country’s holdings dropped to 73.9 million ounces, the lowest since February 2022.
- Moscow Exchange launched indices and futures contracts for XRP, Solana, and others.
Banks and officials in Russia are increasingly looking at alternatives to traditional reserves and payment systems, and XRP is emerging as one of the digital assets under discussion for efficient cross‑border settlement.
On X, analyst Pumpius reported that Russia sold around 900,000 ounces of gold in early 2026 to address budget deficits from sanctions and military spending. This reduced the country’s holdings to 73.9 million ounces, the lowest level since February 2022.
Gold has always been Russia’s financial safety net as a liquid, non‑government‑controlled asset to lean on when global capital markets are off‑limits.
Russia’s Rising Interest in Crypto
At the same time, Moscow Exchange (MOEX) is growing its crypto offerings. For instance, it’s pushing hard into XRP, launching indices and futures contracts for Ripple’s token alongside Solana and others.
Russia hasn’t officially replaced gold reserves with XRP, but there has been a bigger focus lately on blockchain settlement technologies as the country tries to rely less on SWIFT, dollar clearing, and Western banks.
This is mainly due to the fact that Russia is still selling large amounts of oil to China and India, but the problem arises in how to settle the payments. Traditional payment routes that use SWIFT and dollar clearing are still at risk from sanctions and political restrictions.
XRP Ledger’s Role
XRP has become part of that conversation mainly because the XRP Ledger is designed to settle international payments quickly.
Transactions on XRPL typically settle within seconds and at a low cost compared to traditional bank transfers. The blockchain’s main features are the fast consensus model and the ability to process payments efficiently, without the energy‑hungry mining that Bitcoin uses.
Two weeks ago, MOEX added four new crypto indexes for Solana, XRP, TRON, and BNB. They are trading as MOEXSOL, MOEXXRP, MOEXTRX, and MOEXBNB. The exchange launched Bitcoin and Ethereum indexes back in 2025.
All in all, there aren’t any indications or announcements saying that Russia is abandoning gold, but the rising interest in XRP and the token’s futures contracts could be a good sign for Ripple and XRP’s price.
Related: Russia Finalizes Crypto Bill as Digital Assets Gain Legal Status
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