The dominant Russian lender Sberbank said on Saturday it had completed the first digital financial asset transaction on its own platform, with its subsidiary SberFactoring executing a 1 billion rubles ($16 million) issue with a three-month maturity.
The Bank of Russia has long expressed skepticism about cryptocurrencies but is more open to other digital assets and gave blockchain platform Atomyze Russia the first license to exchange digital assets.
No.2 lender VTB and fintech firm Lighthouse executed the country’s first cash-backed digital financial asset transaction in late June.
Sberbank, which received its license in March, said in a statement that digital assets on its platform are being issued using blockchain technology and smart contracts.
Sberbank’s platform will soon be available to all of the bank’s corporate customers.
Russia is working to improve its monitoring of cryptocurrency transactions and could begin enacting regulation of the industry later this year, officials said this week.