Russian Banks May Soon Issue Digital Assets Like Crypto

By Kevin • March 20, 2022 2:25 pm • Comments

Financial sanctions against Russia in the Russian-Ukraine conflict may help the crypto industry reach a new milestone as many Russian banks are starting to turn to cryptocurrencies for additional financial benefits.

In fact, Sberbank just received a new license which will permit the bank to now issue digital assets to its clients which greatly increases the integration between the Russian economy and the crypto markets.

Sberbank is known as the largest lender in Russia which signals that this may not just be a temporary situation, but the start of a new financial shift which was catalyzed by the sanctions.

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As a result, financial regulations regarding crypto will most likely be accelerated at a pace that is much faster than anyone had previously expected.

Yahoo reports:

That is Sberbank, Russia’s largest lender, which just received a license from the central bank to issue digital assets to clients on Thursday. Sberbank said the move would allow Russian firms to mint digital assets and “invest their currently idle funds to generate income.”

“We are just starting our work with digital assets, realizing that further development requires adaptation of the current regulatory framework.

To do that, we are ready to work closely with the regulator and executive bodies,” Sberbank said in a statement. “Companies will be able to make their first transaction on our blockchain platform one month from now.”

In February, the Blockchain platform Atomyze became the first firm to receive a license in Russia to exchange digital assets. Now, Sberbank and the financial ecosystem Lighthouse have also been given the green light to enter the crypto fray.

This recent regulatory shift within the country is tremendous as the stance on crypto before the Ukraine conflict was largely negative with Russian authorities seeking ban crypto due to their reputation of being risky assets.

For Sberbank, this is largely positive for it as it had been wanting to enter the crypto space for a while and had been competing with other financial institutions.

The move also comes during a time when the value of the Russian ruble has plummeted and the bank losing the majority of its traded value on exchanges such as the London Stock Exchange.

The impacts of this complete shift are still unclear as many of the Russian banks are currently diversifying their financial strategies which will now have greater involvement with the commodities and crypto markets instead of fiat.

CoinDesk concludes on the key details:

Russia’s Sberbank has received a license from the Bank of Russia to issue and exchange digital assets, just two months after the Russian central bank had advocated for a full ban on trading, mining and using cryptocurrency.

Sberbank, the country’s largest retail bank, recently said it was withdrawing from European markets after sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine began hitting Russian-exposed industries, and its Europe-based units were seeing cash outflows.

In January, Sberbank applied for a license with Russia’s central bank to issue its own digital token for corporate clients. Sberbank sought to have the digital asset available for the companies banking with it.

Some investors expect that many more institutional lenders may soon follow the same path soon due to increasing customer demand and concerns over the traditional financial markets due to inflation.

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