From Ban To Bank: Russia Just Gave Its Biggest Lender A Crypto Desk 🏦

The Bank of Russia has added Sberbank, the country's largest lender, to its register of authorized cryptocurrency exchange operators, clearing the institution to buy and sell digital assets in its own name and on its own balance sheet. The approval, posted on the regulator's website and dated Tuesday, came six days after Sberbank was placed on a separate list of digital depositories that maintain the official record of who owns which coins. Holding both statuses lets Sberbank sit on the other side of a client's trade and keep the ledger of that client's holdings without routing through an outside venue.

Sberbank said it intends to begin crypto products supporting Bitcoin ($BTC), Ether ($ETH) and Tether's USDT ($USDT) on December 1, 2026, through interfaces customers already use: SberBank Online, SberInvestments and SberBusiness. The bank has already begun testing crypto purchases, sales, deposits and withdrawals inside the SberBank Online app, Russian business newspaper Vedomosti reported on Thursday, citing the bank's press office. The bank has hedged the December date, saying the final launch timeline depends on additional central bank regulations, and noted that both approvals by the Bank of Russia have now arrived, leaving the secondary rulebook as the main remaining variable.

Sberbank ended the second quarter with 110.6 million retail clients and 3.5 million corporate clients, per its quarterly results. Deputy Chairman Anatoly Popov has forecast that crypto trading volumes in Russia could reach 4 trillion rubles, roughly $46 billion, in the regime's first year and 7.5 trillion rubles, nearly $89.7 billion, by 2029. The bank also plans to accept $ETH and $USDT alongside $BTC as collateral for loans once the central bank allows those assets into public circulation.

The updated register of authorized exchange operators now lists 10 firms, up from nine a week earlier, including Sberbank, VTB and T-Invest Lab, which operates within the T-Technologies group that also includes T-Bank, alongside nonbank entrants such as Atomyze. The digital depository register grew to six from four over the same period. The registrations follow the Sept. 1 entry into force of Russia's new crypto rules, which placed exchange operators and custodians under central bank oversight, and firms already on the registers have until September 1, 2027, to bring their operations fully in line with the new law.

The rules cap non-qualified investors at 300,000 rubles, about $3,800, in crypto purchases per year per intermediary, require buyers to pass a knowledge test, and restrict tradable coins to a draft central bank list containing only $BTC, $ETH and $USDT. Russian law still prohibits using cryptocurrencies to pay for goods and services, so Sberbank customers will be able to buy Bitcoin through the bank but not spend it inside Russia. The pivot marks a sharp reversal from the position the Bank of Russia took in January 2022, when it proposed banning crypto use, mining and exchanges outright over threats to financial stability.