Russia's biggest bank executes first digital asset transaction on its blockchain platform

Quick Take

  • Sberbank has conducted the first digital financial asset transaction on its own blockchain-based platform.
  • The bank says the platform has good prospects, given its speed and other benefits. 

Sberbank, the largest bank in Russia and majority-owned by the government, has conducted the first digital financial asset transaction on its own blockchain-based platform.

Announcing the news today, Sberbank said it had launched the smart contract-based blockchain platform and carried out the first transaction with its subsidiary, SberFactoring, executing a 1 billion rouble (about $15 million) issue with a three-month maturity.

"The launch of the platform and our obtaining the status of an operator is the result of the teamwork of many divisions of our bank in close cooperation with the Bank of Russia," Anatoly Popov, deputy chairman of the board of Sberbank, said in the announcement.

Popov went on to say that the research conducted by Sberbank's blockchain laboratory, which was initially launched in 2018, is now being translated into industrial business solutions. "We believe that our platform has good prospects, since the digital format significantly speeds up and simplifies the process of issuing financial instruments and lowers the threshold for entering the market," he said.

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Sberbank's blockchain platform is operating in pilot mode for a limited number of users, but soon all corporate clients of the bank will be able to connect to it.

Looking forward, the bank also plans to launch more types of financial assets on its platform.

Last month, Russia's second-biggest bank, VTB's subsidiary VTB Factoring, executed its first cash-backed digital financial asset transaction in partnership with the fintech company Lighthouse.


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Yogita Khatri is a senior reporter at The Block, covering all things crypto. As one of the earliest team members, Yogita has played a pivotal role in breaking numerous stories, exclusives and scoops. With nearly 3,000 articles under her belt, Yogita holds the records as The Block's most-published and most-read author of all time. Prior to joining The Block, Yogita worked at crypto publication CoinDesk and The Economic Times, where she wrote on personal finance. To contact her, email: [email protected]. For her latest work, follow her on X @Yogita_Khatri5.