- Sberbank, the largest financial institution in Russia, plans to launch a decentralized finance (defi) platform in May.
- The platform will be based on Ethereum and will enable large-scale commercial operations.
- In June 2022, Sberbank conducted the first digital asset transfer on its platform with approval from the Bank of Russia.
Introduction to Sberbank
Sberbank is a state-owned financial services company based in Moscow. It is the largest financial institution in Russia, with $559 billion in assets under management (AUM) as of 2021. The banking giant is also the leader in card payments industry with more than 61% of market share. In January 2022, it launched Russia’s first blockchain exchange-traded fund (ETF). Sberbank and its executive members have been fans of blockchain technology since 2015.
Launch Of Decentralized Finance Platform
Konstantin Klimenko, product director of Sberbank’s blockchain laboratory recently revealed that open testing for the Defi platform will begin from March 1st. The platform will be based on Ethereum and work with Web3 wallet Metamask. According to Klimenko, “We have set ourselves a big goal — to make the Russian defi ecosystem number one.” It is expected that by end of April the publicly available version of this platform will be ready for use and it can enable large scale commercial operations through decentralized finance solutions.
First Digital Asset Transfer Executed On Sberbank Platform
In June 2022, Sberbank conducted it’s first digital asset transfer on its own Defi platform which was approved by Bank of Russia. This shows that government officials are supportive to such advanced technologies being used by leading institutions like Sberbank which marks an important milestone for adoption of cutting edge technologies within traditional banking system.
Non Fungible Tokens Minting Supported By Platform
In September 2020, Sberbanks announced that its Defi Platform was also going to support Non Fungible Token minting feature as well which makes this project even more attractive for customers who are interested in DeFi solutions but also want NFTs support at same time.