Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank by assets, will build cryptocurrency trading infrastructure and launch a digital depository by December 1. First Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board Alexander Vedyakhin confirmed the timeline to state news agency TASS on July 24. The commitment lands weeks before Russia’s first comprehensive crypto market law takes effect on September 1, a framework that pulls trading, custody and settlement under Bank of Russia licensing for the first time. Sberbank is moving to be the first licensed venue inside a market the Russian state spent four years trying to define, and it is doing so while the European Union works to cut Russian crypto firms off from international rails.
A digital depository is a regulated institution that records who owns a crypto asset and settles most transfers on its own internal ledger instead of on the underlying blockchain. Sberbank will still run active wallets for client deposits, withdrawals and outbound transfers, according to Interfax, but the bulk of trading activity will never touch a public chain.
Key takeaways
- Sberbank will launch crypto trading infrastructure and a digital depository by December 1, 2026, per First Deputy Chairman Alexander Vedyakhin.
- Russia’s crypto market law, bill No. 1194918-8, takes effect September 1 and creates Bank of Russia licenses for five participant types: exchanges, brokers, management companies, depositories and exchangers.
- Public exchange trading is capped to assets averaging more than 5 trillion rubles (about $64 billion) in market value and 1 trillion rubles (about $12.8 billion) in daily volume over two years.
- Crypto payments for goods and services inside Russia stay banned, and non-qualified retail investors face a 300,000 ruble (roughly $3,800) annual cap per intermediary.
Published: July 26, 2026, 09:15 UTC
What Russia’s new crypto law actually does
The law creates a licensed intermediary layer between Russian investors and crypto markets for the first time. The State Duma passed bill No. 1194918-8, “On Digital Currency and Digital Rights,” in its second and third readings on July 21, and the Federation Council cleared it days later. Its main provisions take effect September 1, 2026.
From that date the Bank of Russia licenses five categories of participant: exchanges, brokers, management companies, depositories and exchangers. Firms already sitting in a special registry get a grace period until July 1, 2027 before the requirement that transactions pass through a licensed intermediary becomes binding. That eleven-month runway is why Sberbank’s December target matters. The bank is not obligated to launch this year, and it chose to anyway.
Russia has been assembling this framework in pieces. A 2024 law legalized mining and set up an experimental regime for crypto-based cross-border settlement. In 2025 the central bank let financial institutions sell crypto-linked instruments to qualified investors. Our earlier coverage of Russia’s 2026 crypto framework traced how the exchange crackdown and the licensing plan were designed to arrive together.
Which coins clear the Bank of Russia thresholds
The liquidity bar for public exchange trading is high enough to exclude almost the entire market. An asset needs an average market capitalization above 5 trillion rubles, roughly $64 billion, and average daily volume above 1 trillion rubles, roughly $12.8 billion, sustained over a two-year window.
Bitcoin clears both comfortably. Ether clears the market cap test and trades near the volume line on most days. Beyond those two, the list thins out fast once the two-year averaging requirement is applied, which means Russian retail investors will get a menu closer to a bank’s precious metals desk than to a global spot exchange. Qualified investors get access to a wider range of assets, and non-qualified retail buyers are limited to 300,000 rubles, about $3,800, per intermediary per year.
Crypto payments for goods and services inside Russia remain prohibited. The law legalizes crypto as an investment instrument, not as money.
A domestic build against an external squeeze
The timing sits awkwardly against what is happening outside Russia. On July 24 the European Union adopted its 21st sanctions package, which targets a crypto network the bloc values at $120 billion and, for the first time, contemplates banning third-country crypto service providers outright. Fourteen crypto companies are named for designation, though the EU has not published the list.
Read together, the two moves describe a split. Russia is building a self-contained, bank-operated venue where ownership is recorded internally and settlement rarely touches a public chain. Europe is trying to sever the connections between that venue and everything else. A depository model that keeps most transactions off-chain is harder for outside analytics firms to observe, which is a feature for Moscow and a problem for sanctions enforcement.
Sberbank itself has been under Western sanctions since 2022, so its crypto build is aimed at domestic clients rather than international flow.
What comes next
Sberbank has an operating history here rather than a standing start. It has been on the register of information system operators since 2022 and active in Russia’s digital financial assets market. Since 2025 it has sold qualified investors structured bonds and digital financial assets tied to bitcoin and ether, plus crypto baskets. In December 2025 it completed a crypto-backed lending pilot with mining firm Intelion Data.
Three things determine whether the December date holds. The Bank of Russia has to publish licensing criteria and process the first applications before the autumn. Sberbank has to demonstrate custody controls for an asset class its regulators have spent a decade discouraging. And rival state lenders including VTB and Alfa-Bank will decide whether to contest the first-mover position or wait for the July 2027 deadline.
The template is not unique to Russia. Regulated banks elsewhere are running the same play. BNY Mellon launched bitcoin and ether custody in Abu Dhabi, and a group of top US banks is building a shared tokenized deposit network. What separates Sberbank is that its version is being constructed inside a sanctions perimeter, for a domestic market, on a deadline the bank set for itself.
Frequently asked questions
What is Sberbank launching by December 1, 2026?
Sberbank will build cryptocurrency trading infrastructure and launch a digital depository that records client ownership of crypto assets. Most transactions will be processed on the depository’s internal ledger rather than on the underlying blockchain, while active wallets handle client deposits, withdrawals and transfers.
When does Russia’s crypto market law take effect?
The main provisions take effect September 1, 2026. From that date the Bank of Russia begins licensing exchanges, brokers, management companies, depositories and exchangers. The requirement that all transactions route through a licensed intermediary applies from July 1, 2027, giving registered firms a grace period.
Can Russians pay for goods with cryptocurrency under the new law?
No. Crypto payments for goods and services inside Russia remain prohibited. The law treats cryptocurrency as an investment instrument accessed through licensed intermediaries, with non-qualified retail investors capped at 300,000 rubles, about $3,800, per intermediary each year.
