Sberbank customers can mint NFTs

Deputy Chairman Anatoly Popov announced at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok that Sberbank's blockchain platform will allow users to produce non-fungible tokens in the fourth quarter.

The official said the Russian financial giant aims to work with art sites, galleries, and possibly sports organizations on NFT releases for games and competitions.

Popov told RBC's crypto page that the bank will initially test this new technology. Initial service will be limited owing to content moderation, he said.

Sberbank, the biggest Russian bank by assets, created its blockchain platform after it received authorization from the Central Bank of Russia to issue digital financial assets in March, this year. The platform is currently open to legal entities only, but in the last quarter of 2022, private individuals will also be granted access and allowed to issue, buy and sell digital financial assets (DFAs).

About a month later, companies were given the opportunity to issue DFAs certifying monetary claims, purchase assets issued on the platform, and also make other transactions with them, as permitted by the current Russian legislation. The law “On Digital Financial Assets” went into force in January, 2021. Moscow Exchange is preparing to list DFAs by the end of this year.

Although limited, there is demand for NFTs, Popov acknowledged while noting that Russians have been successfully placing digital assets on foreign platforms. He also pointed out that the launch of the NFTs raises many questions that need to be answered, including regarding the content represented by the tokens.

Russia is yet to comprehensively regulate cryptocurrencies as the current law applies mainly to coins that have an issuer. A new law “On Digital Currency” will be reviewed in the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, in the coming months. While most government institutions agree that the Russian ruble should remain the only legal tender in the country, calls have been mounting to legalize the use of decentralized digital currencies in foreign trade