Key points to remember
- Sberbank is about to launch an Ethereum-enabled DeFi platform.
- The launch will take place in several stages, with commercial transactions activated by the end of April.
- Sberbank is the largest bank in Russia and the third in Europe.
Share this article
The various Russian financial institutions and banking entities do not always agree on the subject of cryptocurrencies. Sberbank, the country’s largest bank, is one of the biggest supporters of the technology and is now aiming to launch its own “DeFi” platform by the end of April.
Making the Russian DeFi ecosystem number one
Russia is ready to dive into the ecosystem without Ethereum permission.
Konstantin Klimenko, director of blockchain products at Sberbank announcement today at the Perm Economic Congress in Moscow that the bank would launch its own DeFi platform on Ethereum before May. “We have set ourselves a big goal: to make the Russian DeFi ecosystem number one,” he said.
According to Klimenko, the platform will be compatible with Ethereum; users will be able to log into it using MetaMask wallets. It is unclear whether the platform will be hosted on the Ethereum network itself, or what services it will provide to its users. It is also worth asking why Klimenko calls the platform “decentralized”, since Sberbank itself is state-owned.
The project, which began in November, will be launched in several stages. Currently in beta testing, the platform will enter open testing on March 1 and then become fully open in late April. “It will be possible to carry out commercial operations there” by then, assured Klimenko.
Sberbank is the largest bank in Russia and Eastern Europe, and the third largest in Europe as a whole. The bank had $559 billion in assets under management in 2021; last year it accounted for about a third of all banking assets in Russia.
This is not the first time that Sberbank has shown interest in blockchain technology. Its investment subsidiary, Sber Asset Management, announcement the launch of the first blockchain-themed exchange-traded fund in the country in December 2021. The fund offers Russian investors the opportunity to gain exposure to a diverse portfolio of leading blockchain companies, including Coinbase, Galaxy Digital and Digindex .
Disclaimer: At the time of writing this article, the author of this article owned BTC, ETH, and several other crypto assets.
