Sberbank added to Bank of Russia crypto exchange register

Sberbank, Russia's largest bank, has been added to the Bank of Russia's register of cryptocurrency exchange providers, CoinDesk reported, citing Interfax. The registration gives it approval to exchange cryptocurrencies. It follows the bank's addition to the digital depository register earlier this month, a role that involves recording clients' crypto holdings.

Registered crypto dealers can buy and sell cryptocurrencies with their own funds outside organized exchanges, while depositories record ownership and transfers, according to the central bank. Holding both registrations gives Sberbank a route to offer trading and custody-related services, and the bank began crypto wallet work earlier this year, Interfax reported.

The exchange register now lists nine organizations, among them VTB and T-Invest Lab.

The registrations mark a shift from the central bank's 2022 proposal to ban domestic crypto exchanges and prohibit Russian financial intermediaries from handling cryptocurrencies. A law that took effect Sept. 1 instead creates a regulated market involving banks, brokers, exchanges and digital depositories. Domestic crypto payments remain prohibited. From July next year, crypto transactions will have to go through registered intermediaries, which the source says would effectively shut out peer-to-peer transactions settled through Russian bank accounts.

Sberbank plans to debut its first products Dec. 1 through interfaces its customers already use, Interfax reported, and has been preparing crypto trading infrastructure. The bank is already testing trades in BTC, ETH, USDT and other major tokens in its app, it told Vedomosti, though the central bank will set the final list of permitted coins.

In August, this publication reported on Sberbank's conditional plan to lend against digital assets. The exchange and depository registrations extend the bank's role to customer-facing trading, as the central bank intends to funnel transactions through registered intermediaries.