Sberbank to Accept Bitcoin (BTC), ETH and USDT as Loan Collateral From Sept 1

Sberbank's Collateral Expansion

Sberbank, Russia's largest lender, is preparing to accept Bitcoin (BTC) as loan collateral alongside Ethereum and Tether (USDT), once the country's central bank approves the assets for public circulation. Anatoly Popov, deputy chairman of the bank's management board, said in comments ahead of the Eastern Economic Forum that the institution has been gearing up for the shift and already holds practical experience in handling digital assets.

“We have been preparing for this for some time and already have practical experience working with crypto assets,” Popov said, adding that collateral acceptance is set to extend beyond Bitcoin to Ethereum and the Tether stablecoin. The precondition, he stressed, is a central bank decision recognizing those assets for exchange circulation.

The plan builds directly on a corporate lending pilot the bank ran in December 2025, when it issued what was Russia's first Bitcoin-backed loan to AO Intelion Data, a domestic crypto mining company. The borrower pledged Bitcoin it had mined itself — an asset created through proof-of-work consensus — and Sberbank held the collateral in its own custody setup built on Rutoken hardware solutions. The loan amount was never disclosed.

Still, the trial allowed the bank to test several mechanisms considered essential for crypto-backed lending at scale: custody, ongoing collateral-value monitoring, and the procedures that apply if a borrower defaults. Popov indicated the model could eventually extend beyond crypto mining firms to any corporate holding digital assets, which would move crypto-backed credit from an experimental funding tool toward a mainstream corporate lending product. Sberbank intends to adapt its existing Bitcoin-collateral framework to the new regulatory regime as it comes into force, and to broaden the range of accepted digital assets over time.

Russia's Sept 1 Crypto Law

The push lands as Russia's new crypto regulation goes live. President Vladimir Putin signed Federal Law No. 282-FZ on August 4, and its key provisions take effect on September 1. Under the framework, the Bank of Russia decides which cryptocurrencies may be traded on licensed venues — and the regulator's first draft list includes only Bitcoin, Ethereum and Tether. XRP and other tokens were left out. Selection criteria weighed market capitalization, trading volume and at least five years of price history on foreign exchanges.

The law preserves a critical distinction: using cryptocurrency as collateral is being legalized, while using it as a means of domestic payment remains banned, with limited exceptions for certain foreign-trade settlements. That separation is what opens the door for banks to build credit products around digital assets without turning them into payment instruments.

Sberbank is not the first mover. In February, Sovcombank became the first Russian bank to offer Bitcoin-backed lending as a formal product. But the participation of the country's largest lender gives the model far greater weight. Retail access remains tightly restricted: non-qualified investors must pass a knowledge test and are capped at 300,000 rubles in annual crypto purchases per licensed intermediary.

The scale potential is substantial. Popov projected that regulated trading could reach 3.5–4 trillion rubles (roughly $46.4 billion) in the first year, rising to 4.75–5.25 trillion rubles by 2028 and about 7.5 trillion rubles (around $87 billion) by 2029. Sberbank also aims to establish a regulated digital depository by December 1, 2026, while issuance of digital financial assets on its own blockchain grew roughly 5.6-fold to 408 billion rubles in 2025. The bank has not disclosed loan-to-value ratios, interest rates or a launch date for the expanded collateral products. Readers tracking the market in real time can follow live spot and futures prices on Binance.

From Pilot to Bank Product

COINOTAG's read: the load-bearing document here is the statute itself. Federal Law 282-FZ draws the collateral-versus-payment line that lets regulated lenders hold Bitcoin without legitimizing it as money — the structural hinge for everything Sberbank announced. Accepting directly held BTC for corporate credit also pulls the asset deeper into traditional finance, echoing dynamics across the broader Bitcoin market and the Bitcoin DeFi sector, where tokenized wrappers such as Wrapped Bitcoin have so far carried the collateral role. What is confirmed: the law took effect Sept 1 and the pilot loan happened. What is not: central bank approval for ETH and USDT circulation, and any commercial terms. Until the Bank of Russia acts, Sberbank's plan remains a blueprint, not a product.