Russia's largest bank Sberbank tests DeFi products

ChainCatcher reports that Russia’s largest bank Sberbank is testing various decentralized finance (DeFi) products in response to the growing demand for cryptocurrency trading among customers. Vice Chairman of the bank’s management board Anatoly Popov stated that Sberbank will collaborate with regulators to develop digital asset products and believes that traditional banking services will soon merge with DeFi. Although the Central Bank of Russia previously adopted a cautious stance towards cryptocurrencies, its position has softened due to the growth of the Russian Bitcoin mining industry and more traders using cryptocurrencies for cross-border settlement. Sberbank also expressed interest in public blockchains such as Ethereum and plans to explore asset tokenization and connections with DeFi platforms. It is reported that Sberbank has a market value of approximately $83 billion, serving about 109 million retail clients and over 3 million business clients.