Bank of Russia Puts Sberbank on Crypto Exchange Register on Oct. 12

Both Registers in Six Days

Sberbank can now organize crypto trading in Russia. The Bank of Russia added the country's largest bank to its register of licensed crypto exchange operators on Oct. 12, a Monday, six days after placing Sberbank among its first digital depositories on Oct. 6. The two roles are distinct under the framework: depositories keep the records of who owns cryptocurrency and digital rights, while exchange operators buy and sell crypto on their own account. With this entry, the lender holds both registrations the new law creates. The exchange register has filled quickly since applications opened. When the central bank admitted its first participants on Oct. 6, four firms made the list: VTB, T-Invest Lab, Zefir and Sistema-Crypto, with T-Invest Lab owned by T-Technologies, the group behind T-Bank. Professional Bank and RNKO Finpilot joined on Oct. 8, Moy Bitkoin and Khlynov Bank followed on Oct. 9, and Paradise Technology was entered on Oct. 12, the same day as Sberbank. The central bank's decision pages show at least nine exchange operators now, while Interfax counted eight besides Sberbank. The depository register holds five members, including VTB and Atomyze, with a sixth firm, TT LLC, appearing on the regulator's pages Oct. 12. The regime itself dates to Sept. 1, when Russia's digital currency and digital rights law took force and added the two licensed roles alongside brokers and trustees that could already handle crypto deals. The Bank of Russia, which floated a simplified notification route in March, opened applications on Oct. 5 and let some established institutions register within a day. VTB, the other big bank on the register, has said it expects to open retail crypto trading through its VTB My Investments app in November and to run its own exchange in December. Retail investors without qualified status can buy only bitcoin, ether and Tether's USDt, capped at 300,000 rubles a year per intermediary, while qualified investors face no ceiling. Firms on the registers have until Sept. 1, 2027, to meet every requirement.

Testing Underway Before Dec. 1

Sberbank intends to put its first crypto products in front of customers on Dec. 1, 2026, and says the services will run on interfaces its clients already use, including SberBank Online, SberInvestments and SberBusiness. Preparations have begun. The bank's press office confirmed it is already testing purchases, sales, deposits and withdrawals through the SberBank Online app, and Russian business daily Vedomosti reported those tests, citing the bank. Withdrawal tests move coins out to a client's crypto wallet address, the flow retail users will follow at launch. Sberbank has also described the new status in practical terms, saying it lets the bank organize the circulation of digital currency on platforms customers already use. The final launch schedule depends on further central bank regulations that have not yet been published. The register the bank joined, updated as of Tuesday, appears on the central bank's public register and now lists 10 authorized exchange operators and six digital custodians, up from four and five a week earlier. Sberbank and VTB appear on both lists alongside nonbank names such as T-Invest Lab and Atomyze. Sberbank was among the first companies to secure digital custodian status when that register debuted on Oct. 6. Running purchases and sales inside an existing banking app keeps the transaction on the bank's own rails rather than a separate trading venue, which is how this launch differs from a standalone exchange. No fees, spreads or supported trading pairs have been disclosed yet. One boundary has not moved: Russia still prohibits paying for goods and services with cryptocurrency, so the new services stop at buying, selling and holding.

Two Banks at the Center

The structure the Bank of Russia has chosen concentrates both new roles in a narrow group. Sberbank and VTB appear on the depository list as well, so the same two banks can hold client records and run trading, and volumes inside the 300,000-ruble retail cap will move through accounts the regulator can observe in full. The framework covers decentralized cryptocurrencies, a category distinct from a central bank digital currency, which a monetary authority issues itself. The missing piece is the secondary regulation Sberbank named as a condition for Dec. 1; until it appears, the registers record permission, not trading volume.