Russia’s Sberbank plans to launch DeFi platform on Ethereum

Russia's largest bank, Sberbank, is moving forward with a plan to launch its decentralized finance (DeFi) platform, preparing to test the product in a few months.

Sberbank expects to launch open trials of its DeFi platform by May 2023, Sber's Blockchain Lab product director Konstantin Klimenko announced to local news agency Interfax. reported on February 3.

Sberbank's upcoming DeFi platform, which is currently undergoing private beta testing, will be fully open by the end of April, allowing users to make the first trading transactions, Klimenko said.

The executive noted that the blockchain platform will be compatible with the Ethereum blockchain, allowing clients to use major wallets like MetaMask to move their assets. Klimenko also noted that users will be able to transfer their assets from other platforms.

The blockchain executive stated that Sberbank's DeFi platform aims to become a mainstream DeFi ecosystem in Russia. He also expressed his confidence that DeFi systems could displace the traditional market for banking services.

The announcement coincides with Sberbank's previously disclosed plans to enable DeFi applications on the bank's infrastructure. In November 2022, Sberbank announced a set of new features for its proprietary blockchain platform, including support for smart contracts and applications on the Ethereum network.

It seems that it is not clear how the upcoming platform will be regulated because Russia has not yet come up with a digital currency regulation. According to Anatoly Aksakov, head of the Duma Committee on Financial Markets, Russia "definitely" adopt crypto regulations in 2023.

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As previously reported, Sberbank was struggling to launch some blockchain tools in recent years due to multiple registration delays by the Russian central bank. Originally hoping to launch its digital asset issuance platform in 2021, Sberbank finally received approval from the Bank of Russia in the spring of 2022. The Russian government is the majority shareholder of Sberbank, with a stake of 50% + 1.

On February 2, Alfa-Bank, one of the largest private banks in Russia, become the fourth financial institution in the country authorized to issue digital assets together with Sberbank, the state-backed bank Atomyze tokenization platform and fintech company Lighthouse.