Important Step from Sberbank for Crypto Assets

Russia's largest bank, Sberbank, plans to move beyond the testing phase of its credit model that uses crypto assets as collateral and implement it more comprehensively. This step stands out as a notable development in the Russian banking sector, coinciding with a period of reshaping in the cryptocurrency market and comprehensive regulatory frameworks being on the agenda.

Sberbank aims to make crypto-collateralized credit products accessible for both miners and companies holding digital assets in coordination with the Central Bank of Russia. As of January, for the first time in the country's history, a Bitcoin collateralized loan was granted to IntelionData, one of the major Bitcoin miners, as this model was applied in a pilot phase. The management of Sberbank emphasized that this transaction was only a beginning and similar loans could increase in the future.

The digital asset volume is growing rapidly. The tokenized asset activities that Sberbank has termed digital financial assets (DFA) have shown significant growth throughout 2025. The total volume of digital financial assets issued on the bank's platform has reached 408 billion rubles. This represents an approximately 5.6 times increase compared to the previous year. The amount of DFA held on the bank's own balance sheet has also increased 7 times in just six months, reaching 185 billion rubles. However, Sberbank's traditional loan volume is on a much larger scale. Its corporate loan portfolio exceeds 30 trillion rubles, while individual loans and deposits maintain a scale in the hundreds of billions of dollars.

Currently, Sberbank offers structured products linked to Bitcoin and Ethereum, and is testing DeFi tools. Additionally, when its rival bank Sovcombank rolls out crypto-collateralized credit products, it is expected that applications in this area will rapidly proliferate in Russia. Russian authorities aim to complete a comprehensive legal framework encompassing crypto assets by July 1, 2026. This timeline indicates that Sberbank's planned credit move could serve as a turning point not only for the banking sector but also for the overall cryptocurrency ecosystem in Russia.