Sberbank to Launch Regulated Crypto Trading and Custody by Dec. 1

Sberbank, Russia's largest bank, plans to have a regulated cryptocurrency trading platform and a digital depository running by Dec. 1, according to CoinDesk. The move follows the Federation Council's approval of a bill governing crypto transactions through licensed intermediaries, with a new regulatory regime set to take effect Sept. 1.

Interfax reported that Sberbank's planned digital depository will record customers' ownership rights to cryptocurrencies. Much of the transaction processing is expected to happen off-chain–outside the underlying blockchain–a model closer to traditional securities infrastructure where settlement occurs inside supervised systems. Sberbank also plans to operate hot wallets for customer deposits, withdrawals, and transfers.

Under the proposed rules, cryptocurrencies eligible for trading on public exchanges must meet Bank of Russia liquidity standards: an average market capitalization of at least 5 trillion rubles and average daily trading volume of at least 1 trillion rubles over the past two years. At the cited rates, that is roughly $64 billion and $12.8 billion, respectively. 'Qualified investors' would have access to a wider range of tokens, reinforcing the regulator's preference for segmenting by sophistication and risk tolerance.

The bank has already tested the waters. Sberbank began offering Bitcoin-linked structured notes to qualified investors last year, and in December it completed a pilot for BTC-collateralized lending with the mining firm Intelion Data. The new buildout aims to scale those experiments into a standardized, institution-grade service.