Russia's biggest bank gets the green light to trade crypto, and Sberbank says customers can start on December 1

Sberbank, Russia's largest bank, can now buy and sell crypto for its customers. The Bank of Russia added it to the register of organisations that exchange digital currencies, the central bank said on its website on Monday, October 12, according to Interfax. Sberbank joins eight other firms on that list, including rival VTB and T-Invest Lab, part of the group that owns T-Bank.

Earlier this month Sberbank was also admitted to a second register, for digital depositories, which keep the records of who owns which coins. The bank said its new status lets it offer crypto services in the interfaces its clients already use, and that the first products will go live on December 1, Interfax reported.

The approvals follow a law that took effect on September 1 and created a regulated market for crypto run through banks, brokers, exchanges and depositories. Sberbank has been testing trades in bitcoin, ether, USDT and other large tokens in its app, CoinDesk reported, citing Vedomosti, and the central bank will set the final list of coins allowed.

Limits remain. Using crypto to pay for goods and services inside Russia is still banned, and from July 2027 crypto transactions will have to go through registered intermediaries, which would largely shut out peer-to-peer deals settled through Russian bank accounts, CoinDesk reported. In 2022 the central bank had proposed banning domestic crypto exchanges altogether.