Russia’s SberBank to Launch DeFi Platform in May

In a release on Friday, Russian news outlet Interfax shared updates regarding the nation’s largest bank, Sberbank’s forthcoming DeFi platform. Russia’s leading financial entity is reportedly making steady progress as it approaches its project’s launch date. According to Konstantin Klimenko, Product Director of the Blockchain Laboratory of Sberbank, open testing should kick off by March. 

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At the moment, Sberbank’s platform is undergoing private beta testing. However, Klimenko set a tentative deadline for the product release in May of this year. As April draws to a close, the director claimed, the product should be fully open. Should Klimenko’s words stand true,  users will be able to conduct the first commercial operations by then.

The product director also shared Sber’s expectations for the platform to become Russia’s foremost DeFi ecosystem. It is also their plan to put the nation’s DeFi ecosystem in the lead globally. These answers reportedly came as Klimenko responded to questions from participants in the 7th Perm Economic Congress on Friday.

Klimenko seemed certain that the new DeFi models would displace the traditional banking system. The emerging platform will feature Ethereum interoperability. Users can access major Ethereum-based services, Metamask wallets in particular. They will also be able to move their assets from other crypto firms. 

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Sberbank had earlier shared its plans for Ethereum integration in November last year. This came as the firm unveiled its plans to introduce DeFi functionality to its banking model. Sberbank announced a slew of new features at the time which the recent announcement appears to be in line with.

Notably, the bank is yet to iron out the details of regulation for its DeFi offering. The reason for this is Russia’s as yet inadequate framework for the regulation of digital assets. Anatoly Aksakov, head of the Duma’s Committee on Financial Market, says Russia will certainly adopt a regulatory structure this year. 

Interestingly, Sberbank has had certain blockchain-focused projects in the works for years. However, several registration delays thanks to the Russian central bank have forced these plans to be put on hold. Sberbank only just received the green light to move forward with its digital asset issuance platform in spring of last year. 

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Since its invasion of Ukraine a year ago, Russia has been working to evade sanctions by leveraging blockchain technology. In October of 2022, for instance, Russian companies reported using cryptocurrency to bypass sanctions through cross-border transactions. The government reportedly has plans to introduce a state-run exchange so that it can collect taxes on the increasing number of trades.