
Russia’s Sber bank completes first digital asset transaction
Sber executed a billion rubles (around $16 million) digital financial asset issuance with its subsidiary SberFactoring as the platform's first transaction on July 9.
Sber executed a billion rubles (around $16 million) digital financial asset issuance with its subsidiary SberFactoring as the platform's first transaction on July 9.
Sber—formerly Sberbank—is set to begin issuing and trading digital financial assets on its in-house digital assets platform, with first transaction to take place around mid-July.
The state-owned Sber recently rebranded from Sberbank to become a leader in technology and financial technologies, rather than solely in banking.
Russia’s Sberbank has filed an application with the country’s banking regulator to launch its own stablecoin.
The state owned bank is reportedly nearing rollout of the technology, which will provide access to digital currencies and digital assets via blockchain.
Russia’s digital currency law
Russia’s latest digital currency law, which recognizes digital currencies as a legitimate asset in Russia, has paved the way for Sberbank to launch their stablecoin.
Beyond recognizing digital currency as a legitimate asset, and prohibiting Russian citizens to pay for any goods and services with digital currency, the bill gives Russian companies permission to tokenize their business and issue digital shares via the blockchain. It is unclear when Sberbank is looking to ssue their token, but the Russian digital currency bill is to become effective in January 2021,
Optimizing banking and finance
Sberbank’s stablecoin is a significant step forward for the legacy finance industry. The bank has recognized that blockchain can reduce payment settlement costs and time and has therefore made the move to implement the technology. As time goes on, we are likely to see more traditional financial institutions implement blockchain technology since it can introduce significant advantages over the current legacy systems used in the banking and finance industries.
For that reason, among many others, several governments around the world have been researching, developing, and piloting a central bank digital currency with the belief that the next evolution of money will be to digitize a majority of the fiat currency that is in circulation.
" title="State-owned Sberbank eyes launching Russia’s stablecoin" />The “Sbercoin” will be equal to a fixed amount of Russian Ruble and that it will be used for digital financial asset settlements.
Sberbank will no longer pursue its plans following the negative stance adopted towards cryptocurrencies by the Bank of Russia.
Russia’s initial coin offering (ICO) pilot has ended and its administrator, the Bank of Russia, has announced that it was a complete success.
State-owned Sberbank and Russia’s largest private bank, Alfa Bank, are testing cryptocurrency investment portfolios under the central bank’s ‘regulatory sandbox.’
Sberbank worked together with telecoms operator MTS and the National Settlement Depository (NSD) to carry out a landmark commercial transaction using blockchain technology.
To avoid violating domestic rules, the Moscow-based bank is reportedly planning to offer cryptocurrency trading to international customers.