Sberbank Set to Launch Decentralized Finance Platform Based on Ethereum

A recent report details that Russia’s largest financial institution, Sberbank, plans to launch a decentralized finance (defi) platform in May. Konstantin Klimenko, product director of Sberbank’s blockchain laboratory, said that open testing will begin in March.

According to a report published by the news outlet Interfax, state-owned financial services company Sberbank, based in Moscow, plans to launch a decentralized finance (defi) application. The platform is currently undergoing closed beta testing, according to Konstantin Klimenko, Sberbank’s blockchain laboratory product director.

“We have set ourselves a big goal — to make the Russian defi ecosystem number one,” Klimenko said. “Our network is currently working in closed beta testing format … But starting March 1st, we will move to the next phase and it will no longer be beta testing, but open testing,” Sberbank’s blockchain laboratory executive added.

The platform, which will be based on Ethereum, will work with the Web3 wallet Metamask. Sberbank’s team aims to make it publicly available by the end of April and hopes it will enable large-scale commercial defi operations. In June 2022, the Russian banking and financial services giant conducted the first digital asset transfer on its platform, which was approved by the Bank of Russia. In September, Sberbank announced that its platform will also allow non-fungible token (NFT) minting.

Besides the Bank of Russia, Sberbank is Russia’s largest financial institution with $559 billion in assets under management (AUM) as of 2021. The bank is also the leader in the card payments industry in the Russian Federation, commanding more than 61% of the market. In January 2022, the Russian banking firm launched Russia’s first blockchain exchange-traded fund (ETF). Sberbank, its executive members, and its subsidiaries have been fans of blockchain technology since 2015.

What do you think about Sberbank’s goal to make the Russian defi ecosystem number one? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.