Russia's largest bank prepares to issue loans using crypto as collateral: report
Quick Take
- Sberbank, Russia’s largest lender, is reportedly preparing to issue corporate loans backed by cryptocurrency as collateral.
- The move follows a pilot transaction with miner Intelion Data in late 2025 and aligns with a 5.6x annual growth in issuance on the bank’s proprietary blockchain platform.
Sberbank is preparing to launch a product for corporate loans secured by cryptocurrency, a spokesperson for Russia's dominant financial institution told Reuters. The state-owned lender is following rival Sovkombank, which was the first Russian bank to issue such loans.
The bank cited strong client demand for the planned service and said it is ready to collaborate with the nation’s central bank to develop a regulatory framework, according to the report.
Reuters stated Sberbank aims to serve cryptocurrency mining firms as well as other corporate entities that hold crypto assets. The development follows a similar trajectory to global institutions like JPMorgan, which is exploring such products, and Wells Fargo, which already offers them.
The lending plans follow a pilot transaction completed in late 2025 with miner AO Intelion Data. In that deal, disclosed in December, Intelion Data pledged self-mined digital currency as collateral. Sber used its proprietary custody infrastructure and a Rutoken hardware solution to safeguard the collateral during the loan term. The bank has not disclosed the loan size.
Anatoly Popov, deputy chairman of Sberbank’s executive board, said in a December statement that the pilot tested digital collateral mechanisms and could inform future regulation.
A multi-year buildout of digital asset infrastructure
Sberbank’s move into crypto-backed lending is an extension of a years-long strategic buildout. The bank first signaled its intent to establish a platform for digital financial assets in November 2020. It received official approval to operate as a DFA issuer from the central bank in March 2022 and executed its first transaction on its proprietary blockchain platform that July.
The scale of that platform has since expanded dramatically. According to a Feb. 2 announcement from Sberbank, the total value of digital financial assets issued on its platform reached 408 billion rubles ($5.3 billion) in 2025. That figure represents a 5.6 times increase from the 73 billion rubles ($948 million) issued in 2024 and is 204 times greater than the 2 billion rubles issued in 2023.
In January 2026 alone, new DFA issuance hit 231 billion rubles ($3 billion), an amount exceeding half of the prior full year’s total. The bank also reported that the volume of digital assets held on its platform grew sevenfold in six months, rising from 25 billion rubles ($324 million) to 185 billion rubles ($2.4 billion).
The Russian central bank currently defines cryptocurrencies as foreign exchange assets, a classification that permits their purchase and sale but prohibits their use for domestic payments. The regulator has set a deadline of July 1, 2026, to finalize a broader legislative framework for crypto assets.
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