Amid more reports on the Bank of Russia rejecting the finance ministry’s proposal of cryptocurrency regulation, the central bank has kicked off trials of its own digital currency. The Russian central bank has officially launched the digital ruble trial, successfully completing the first central bank digital currency (CBDC) transfers among citizens, the Bank of Russia announced Tuesday. The launch aligns with the bank’s plans to debut the first digital ruble transactions in early 2022. Three banks out of 12 financial institutions in the digital ruble pilot group have already integrated the CBDC platform, with two of them completing a “full …

The central bank of Russia is setting up a group of banking institutions to test its central bank digital currency (CBDC) next year. On Tuesday, the Bank of Russia officially announced the establishment of the first pilot group for testing the digital ruble, bringing together 12 Russian banks. The pilot members include Russia’s largest banks like state-backed Sberbank and VTB, as well as major private banks like Tinkoff Bank. Other participants include commercial bank Alfa Bank, Gazprombank, Promsvyazbank, Rosbank, Ak Bars Bank, Dom.RF, SKB-Bank, TKB and Soyuz bank. The bank reaffirmed Russia’s plans to complete a prototype digital ruble platform …