Russia’s largest bank Sberbank is moving forward with the plan to launch its decentralized finance (DeFi) platform, preparing to trial the product in a few months. Sberbank expects to launch open trials of its DeFi platform by May 2023, Sber’s Blockchain Lab product director Konstantin Klimenko announced, the local news agency Interfax reported on Feb. 3. Currently being tested in private beta, Sberbank’s upcoming DeFi platform will be fully open by the end of April, enabling users to conduct the first commercial transactions, Klimenko said. The exec noted that the blockchain platform will be compatible with the Ethereum blockchain, allowing …

Russia’s largest bank Sber — formerly known as Sberbank — reported the first issue of gold-backed digital financial assets (DFAs). The bank considers DFAs to be a “great alternative” to investments amid dedollarization. On Dec. 26, Sber published the news about its first issue of gold-backed DFAs. A diversified metals seller and manufacturer, Solfer, became the first investor to obtain the issued assets. Gold-backed DFAs represent certifying monetary rights, whose price and volume depend on gold prices. According to juridical documentation of the issuance, the bank will provide up to 150,000 DFAs for potential investors to buy. The DFAs will …

Russia’s largest bank Sber — formerly known as Sberbank — continues developing its blockchain platform by integrating it with the Ethereum blockchain. On Nov. 30, Sber officially announced new opportunities for its proprietary blockchain platform, including compatibility with smart contracts and applications on the Ethereum network. This would allow developers to move smart contracts and entire projects between Sber’s blockchain and public blockchain networks, the bank said. Sber’s latest additions also bring an integration with major software cryptocurrency wallet MetaMask, which is used to interact with the Ethereum blockchain. The integration allows users to make operations with tokens and smart …

Russian banking giant Sber — formerly known as Sberbank — is preparing to complete its first digital currency deal involving the bank’s proprietary digital asset platform soon. The bank will conduct its first transaction involving digital financial assets (DFA) on its digital asset issuance platform by mid-July. Anatoly Popov, deputy chairman of Sber’s executive board, disclosed Sber’s plans to complete such a deal in an interview with the state-backed news agency TASS on June 15. Popov claimed that Sber finally received registration from the country's central bank — the Bank of Russia — in spring 2022, following a series of …

In the event of harsh Western sanctions, Russians’ savings could be confiscated, according to Nikolai Arefiev, a member of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and vice-chairman of the Duma’s committee on economic policy. The Russian government can potentially seize about 60 trillion rubles ($750 billion) worth of people’s deposits should Western nations decide to block all of Russia’s foreign funds, Arefiev said in an interview with the local news agency NEWS.ru on Monday. “If all the foreign funds are blocked, the government will have no other choice but to seize all the deposits of the population, or 60 …

TCS Group, the owner of the major private Russian bank Tinkoff, is gaining exposure to digital assets. The firm has invested in Swiss digital asset service provider Aximetria, which is set to become the company’s first major crypto-related outfit, local news agency The Bell reported Wednesday. Citing data from Aximetria, the report suggests that TCS purchased 4,449 Aximetria shares worth 100 Swiss francs ($108) per share. Given that Aximetria’s total share capital was about 535,000 francs ($578,000), the publication reported TCS’ stake to be around 83.2%. A spokesperson for Tinkoff confirmed the news to Cointelegraph, stating that Aximetria will be …

Sber, the Russian government-backed company and the largest bank in the country, is launching a blockchain exchange-traded fund (ETF) to track the performance of major crypto companies such as Coinbase and Galaxy Digital. Sber Asset Management officially announced the news on Thursday, stating that the new ETF is linked to various blockchain and crypto industry firms, including hardware and software providers for mining and issuing crypto assets. Called “Sber — Blockchain Economy,” the fund is set to trade under the ticker SBBE and will track the eponymous index developed by Sber’s investment subsidiary SberCIB. SBBE’s portfolio will include some of …

The Russian central bank continues its strict policies regarding the cryptocurrency industry, now officially banning mutual funds from investing in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC). On Dec. 13, the Bank of Russia published an official statement on regulating investment opportunities by mutual investment funds. Despite expanding the number of assets available for investment by mutual funds, the document prohibits fund managers from buying cryptocurrencies as well as “financial instruments whose value depends on prices of digital assets.” The statement emphasizes that mutual funds are not allowed to provide crypto exposure both to either qualified or unqualified investors. The Bank of Russia …

Sber, Russia’s largest bank, is apparently struggling to obtain a regulatory approval for its digital asset issuance platform as the company continues delaying registration plans. Sber CEO Herman Gref announced Dec. 7 that the bank now expects to get its digital asset issuance platform registered with the Bank of Russia by the end of 2021, local news agency Prime reported. "We are in constant contact with the central bank, and we are discussing various issues. We really want to believe that the platform will be registered by the end of this year,” Gref said. The new comments come almost a …

Sber, the largest banking institution in Russia, continues progressing with the development of its blockchain-based platform for issuing digital assets. Anatoly Popov, deputy chairman of the executive board at Sber, said that the bank is planning to have registered its digital asset issuance platform with the Bank of Russia — the country’s central bank — by mid-September, local news agency TASS reported on Thursday. Popov said that Sber has started building functionalities to allows third parties to issue digital assets and expects to have rolled out this feature by the end of the year. At the time being, the bank …

Federal authorities in Russia are moving forward with a plan to closely monitor cryptocurrency activity for illicit transactions and deanonymize crypto users’ identities. The Russian Federal Financial Monitoring Service, also known as Rosfinmonitoring, has selected a contractor for developing a platform for tracking cryptocurrency activity. According to data from Russia’s state procurement website, the country will allocate 14.7 million rubles ($200,000 USD) from its budget to create a “module for monitoring and analyzing cryptocurrency transactions” using Bitcoin (BTC). According to the official data, the procurement contract was granted to a company referred to as RCO, which is reportedly indirectly backed …

The state of cryptocurrency regulation in Russia has taken another twist as a local court has ordered the country’s largest bank to resume account support for a Bitcoin (BTC) trader. Sverdlovsk regional court, a court in Russia’s fourth-largest city of Yekaterinburg, has ordered Sber, formerly known as Sberbank, to unblock account services to a client involved in Bitcoin trading, according to an official announcement on Monday. The client’s bank accounts processed multiple transactions associated with trades on cryptocurrency exchanges from May to August 2020. Sber blocked the individual from access to their bank accounts, citing suspicious transaction activity and Anti-Money …