Sberbank plans to make Bitcoin, Ether, and Tether’s USDT available to its 110.6 million retail customers on December 1st.
Now, Russia’s largest lender has been cleared by the Bank of Russia as a crypto exchange and digital depository.
Bank of Russia cleared the exchange license on October 12th
The coins will be housed inside SberBank Online, SberInvestments and SberBusiness, apps that the bank’s customers already open for day-to-day banking. Sberbank also had 3.5 million corporate clients at the end of the second quarter.
The bank said of its depository listing: “This status will allow the bank to provide services related to organizing the circulation of digital currency on interfaces which clients already use.”
Sberbank ties the December 1st kickoff to decisions by the central bank and the arrival in good time of secondary regulations.
The depository one came six days before the exchange approval on October 12th. Sberbank can both take the other side of a client’s trade and record that client’s holdings in-house, without requiring any outside venue.
Only Bitcoin, Ether, and USDT are in the central bank’s draft list for retail buyers. Sberbank Deputy Chairman Anatoly Popov has predicted Russian crypto trading volumes of as much as 4 trillion rubles, ~$48 billion, in the regime’s first year.
Sberbank has started to offer qualified investors structured bonds and digital financial assets linked to Bitcoin, Ethereum, and crypto baskets in 2025, and in December 2025 it ran a test of a crypto-backed loan, Cryptopolitan reported in July.
“One of the key elements of the new infrastructure will be a digital depository, which will maintain records of clients’ cryptocurrency rights and account for transactions outside the main blockchain,” said First Deputy Chairman Alexander Vedyakhin at the time.
Non-qualified buyers face a 300,000 ruble yearly cap
Each approved intermediary can sell electronic assets to each non-qualified retail investor up to 300,000 rubles (about $3,600) a year. Each buyer must get through a knowledge test first.
Crypto payments for goods are still illegal in Russia. Sberbank clients will be able to buy Bitcoin, but not spend it at home.
The new law forbids transfers between individuals and transfers to non-custodial wallets, the central bank said, Cryptopolitan reported.
“No, transfers of digital currency between individuals are not permitted under Part 5 of Article 31 of Federal Law No. 282-FZ,” the regulator said in a Q&A on its website.
Some direct deals will still be allowed until July 1, 2027. President Vladimir Putin signed the law “On digital currencies and digital rights” in August, and it came into force on September 1.
Sberbank was one of nine firms on the exchange register, along with VTB and T-Invest Lab. There are five on the registry of depositories, including VTB and Atomyze.
Sberbank, VTB, and Atomyze are all subject to Western sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia has been accused of using crypto to sidestep those restrictions.
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