Russia’s Biggest Bank Aims to Enter the Crypto Space

Russia’s biggest bank reportedly plans to offer a crypto wallet and digital depository this year.

That’s according to a report Monday (July 6) from CoinDesk, which says this move will bring Sberbank into a market Russia has spent years hoping to contain.

The new services will become part of the Sberbank Online and SberInvestments platforms once Russia adopts its bill “On Digital Currency and Digital Rights,” set to take effect in September, the report said.

The wallet would let Sberbank clients access authorized cryptocurrencies inside the bank’s apps. Sberbank also plans to create a digital depository for cryptocurrency tokens, CoinDesk added.

“As regulations emerge, we will prepare a service for our clients. Essentially, it will be a crypto wallet, which we will implement first in Sberbank Online and SberInvestments,” said Kirill Tsarev, first deputy chairman of the bank’s management board.

CoinDesk points out that these developments come after years of pushback on crypto by Russia’s central bank. The Bank of Russia in 2022 called for a ban on the digital currency that covered trading, mining and usage, arguing crypto threatened the country’s financial stability and monetary policy.

Russia’s Finance Ministry pushed a bill that went against the bank, barring crypto payments while keeping the door opened to licensed trading. When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, President Vladimir Putin signed a law tightening the ban on cryptocurrency payments.

PYMNTS wrote recently about the way the world of blockchain finance has begun to intersect with the traditional banking system.

“Banks, asset managers, exchanges, payment providers and regulators are no longer treating blockchain as a parallel financial universe and started treating it as a faster, more efficient way to package, distribute and settle the products they already offer,” that report said, adding that “crypto-native firms are targeting many of the same commercial and customer outcomes.”

This came after a series of announcements from players across the financial services and crypto spaces that suggest a blurring of the lines between banking products, capital markets products and blockchain products.

“The shift raises larger questions for regulators as well,” the report added “If a money market fund, a payment account or a custody service can be delivered through blockchain infrastructure, what exactly should be regulated: the institution, the product, the technology, or all three?”