This post was originally published on this site.
What Is Sberbank Preparing to Launch?
Sberbank is preparing to introduce corporate lending products secured by cryptocurrency, according to comments made by a bank spokesperson to Reuters. The planned offering would allow companies to pledge digital assets as collateral, placing Russia’s largest lender among a small but growing group of banks experimenting with crypto-backed financing.
The bank said it is responding to strong client demand and is prepared to work with Russia’s central bank on the regulatory framework needed to support such loans. Reuters reported that Sberbank intends to target cryptocurrency mining firms as well as other corporates that hold digital assets on their balance sheets.
If launched, the product would follow a similar path to Sovkombank, which previously became the first Russian lender to issue loans backed by cryptocurrency. It would also mirror developments outside Russia, where large international banks have begun testing or offering crypto-collateralized lending to institutional clients.
Investor Takeaway
Crypto-backed lending is moving beyond pilots and into early product design, with large banks testing whether digital assets can function as usable collateral within regulated balance sheets.
How the Intelion Data Pilot Worked
Sberbank’s plans build on a pilot transaction completed in late 2025 with mining firm AO Intelion Data. The deal, disclosed publicly in December, involved Intelion pledging self-mined cryptocurrency as collateral for a corporate loan.
To manage custody and risk, Sberbank relied on its own digital asset infrastructure combined with a Rutoken hardware solution to secure the collateral for the duration of the loan. The bank did not disclose the size or tenor of the transaction, but described the pilot as a technical and operational test rather than a full commercial rollout.
Anatoly Popov, deputy chairman of Sberbank’s executive board, said at the time that the transaction was designed to explore how digital collateral could function in a controlled banking environment. “The pilot transaction tested digital collateral mechanisms and may be used in the future to form regulation,” Popov said in the December statement.
That focus on mechanics is key. Crypto-backed lending introduces challenges around custody, valuation, liquidation, and legal enforceability, all of which banks must address before scaling such products beyond isolated cases.
Why Sberbank Is Expanding Digital Asset Infrastructure
The lending initiative fits into a longer buildout of digital financial asset infrastructure at Sberbank. The bank first outlined plans for a platform supporting digital financial assets in late 2020, well before most Russian financial institutions engaged seriously with tokenized instruments.
Sberbank received approval from the central bank to operate as a digital financial asset issuer in March 2022 and completed its first transaction on its proprietary blockchain platform that July. Since then, activity on the platform has accelerated sharply.
According to a Feb. 2 disclosure, total digital financial asset issuance on Sberbank’s platform reached 408 billion rubles in 2025, up from 73 billion rubles the year before and just 2 billion rubles in 2023. In January 2026 alone, new issuance reached 231 billion rubles, exceeding half of the previous full year’s total.
The volume of digital assets held on the platform has also risen quickly, increasing from 25 billion rubles to 185 billion rubles in a six-month period. That growth helps explain why the bank is now exploring ways to use digital assets more actively within lending and collateral frameworks.
Investor Takeaway
Rapid growth in on-platform digital assets creates pressure to find practical uses for those holdings, including financing and liquidity tools rather than passive issuance alone.
How Regulation Shapes the Opportunity
Russia’s regulatory stance remains a central constraint. The central bank currently classifies cryptocurrencies as foreign exchange assets. That allows buying and selling but prohibits their use for domestic payments, keeping crypto largely separate from everyday economic activity.
At the same time, the regulator has set July 1, 2026, as a deadline to finalize a broader legislative framework for crypto assets. That timeline gives banks like Sberbank a window to test structures, gather data, and propose rules grounded in real transactions rather than theory.
Crypto-backed lending sits at a sensitive intersection of that framework. While the loans would not use crypto as a means of payment, they would rely on digital assets as security, raising questions around enforcement, liquidation rights, and treatment during market stress.