More than 220,000 digital ruble accounts were opened in the first month, according to a Cointelegraph report published on Oct 6, 2026. That is close to four times the number Russia's central bank had forecast. The digital ruble is Russia's central bank digital currency, or CBDC.
The report says the result is one of the first real tests of a bigger question: can CBDCs move past pilot programs and get used in everyday life? A first month of account openings is the only data point the article gives. It does not report how many of these accounts are active or how much money has moved through them.
The article also places the rollout next to a wider effort. BRICS nations are exploring ways to link their digital currencies for cross-border trade and payments. The report gives no timeline and no technical details for any such link.
Some things are still unknown. The article does not give the exact forecast figure or say how the accounts are being used. It also does not say whether early sign-ups will keep up at this pace. The story was written by Sam Bourgi and edited by Robert Lakin.
For anyone already holding a perpetual position on Bitget, Bybit, MEXC or OKX, this news changes nothing directly. The report says nothing about crypto exchanges, funding rates, trading fees or market liquidity, and it does not say the digital ruble trades on any of these venues. It is a story about state money and payments infrastructure, not about the cost of holding a perp.
Source: cointelegraph — Russia’s digital ruble accounts top 220K in first month, nearly 4X central bank forecast
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