Sberbank Clears Russia's Crypto Register and Will Open Trading on December 1

Russia's biggest bank just got the green light to trade crypto. Sberbank is now on the Bank of Russia's crypto exchange register, and it plans to open trading to ordinary clients on December 1.

What the approval actually covers

The register entry is only half the story. Earlier in October the bank also joined the digital depository register, which lets it record client holdings and move them between addresses. Together the two licences cover both sides of the market — registered dealers buy and sell coins with their own funds outside organised trading, while depositories keep the ownership records.

Sberbank is not first through the door

Eight other organisations already sit on the exchange register, including VTB and T-Invest Lab. VTB says it expects to open digital currency trading to a wide range of investors through VTB My Investments as early as November, with its own crypto exchange following in December.

The restrictions that come with it

The opening arrives wrapped in controls. Paying for goods with crypto inside Russia is still banned, and from July of next year transactions will have to run through registered intermediaries — which effectively shuts out peer-to-peer trades settled through Russian bank accounts. Sberbank is already testing BTC, ETH and USDT in its app, but the central bank, not the bank, will decide which coins make the final list.

Why this matters

Russia is reversing course. In 2022 the central bank proposed banning domestic crypto exchanges outright, and a law that took effect on September 1 instead created a licensed market of banks, brokers, exchanges and depositories. For anyone watching how a major economy absorbs crypto, this is the template: custody inside the banks, payments outside the law.