key takeaways
- Sberbank is ready to launch an Ethereum-compatible DeFi platform.
- The launch will take place in several steps, with commercial transactions enabled at the end of April.
- Sberbank is the largest bank in Russia and the third largest in Europe.
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The various financial institutions and banks in Russia do not always agree on the subject of cryptocurrencies. Sberbank, the country’s largest bank, is one of the biggest proponents of the technology and now aims to launch its own “DeFi” platform by the end of April.
Making the Russian DeFi ecosystem number one
Russia is ready to dive into Ethereum’s permissionless ecosystem.
Konstantin Klimenko, director of blockchain products at Sberbank Announced 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 stated.
According to Klimenko, the platform will be compatible with Ethereum; users will be able to login by using MetaMask wallets. It is not clear if the platform will be hosted on the Ethereum network itself or what services it will provide to its users. It is also worth wondering why Klimenko calls the platform “decentralized”, since Sberbank itself is state owned.
The project, which started in November, will be launched in several steps. Currently in beta testing, the platform will go into open testing on March 1st and then be fully open by the end of April. “It will be possible to do some business on it” by then, Klimenko said.
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 bank assets in Russia.
It is not the first time that Sberbank has taken an interest in blockchain technology. Its investment arm, Sber Asset Management, Announced the launch of the country’s first blockchain-themed ETF in December 2021. The fund provides Russian investors with the opportunity to gain exposure to a diversified portfolio of top blockchain companies, including Coinbase, Galaxy Digital, and Digindex .
Disclaimer: At the time of writing, the author of this article owned BTC, ETH, and various other crypto assets.
