Category: cryptomoney

Russia’s largest bank to launch its own stablecoin

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Russia’s largest bank to launch its own stablecoin

  • Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, is planning to launch a financial platform based on the blockchain and a stable corner. Will Russia finally become crypto-friendly?
  • In Russia, the Sberbank has just asked the country’s central bank for authorisation to deploy a financial platform based on the blockchain, as well as a stable corner.

This platform and its stablecoin will be intended for Sberbank’s partner companies, and not for private individuals. The bank is said to have taken this Crypto Cash initiative in response to growing demand from its employees.

It should be noted that the country’s central bank is Sberbank’s majority shareholder. In addition, many members of the government such as German Gref and Anton Siluanov are members of the SberBank’s supervisory board. All these features will undoubtedly help the Sberbank’s application to be successful.

The Sberbank is currently the largest bank in Russia and the third largest in Europe in terms of capitalisation. The Sberbank press service told Coindesk :

„This stable corner will allow companies to use smart contracts on the Sberbank platform, based on the Hyperledger Fabric blockchain. Tokenising physical goods and cash on this platform will allow full automation of transactions“.

This stable corner will unsurprisingly be backed by the Russian rouble and should be in place by June 2021 at the latest.

A country hostile to cryptomoney

Will the forthcoming arrival of the Sberbank’s stable corner be a major factor in Russia’s recovery? Indeed, the country has been rather hostile to cryptomoney for many years.

For example, individual investors are not allowed to buy more than $7,750 worth of cryptomoney each year. A rather surprising measure aimed at preventing capital flight to these assets.

Another noteworthy example is that investors who do not declare their cryptomonnages to the authorities are subject to very heavy penalties, such as fines and even prison sentences in the most extreme cases.

However, a notable difference concerns the future stablecoin of the Sberbank and the cryptomoney in the government’s sights. As the bank is owned by the Russian state, the latter can fully control and monitor the development of its stablecoin.

Russia is also working on a digital version of the rouble, like many other banks around the world with their local currency.

The authorities are therefore hostile towards cryptomoney which they cannot control, such as Bitcoin (BTC) or other currencies issued by private companies.

At first glance, there is every reason to believe that the arrival of Sberbank’s stablecoin will not change the situation for individual investors. Russia’s cryptomoney industry will continue to be monitored as much as before.