Russian Bank Sber will launch the Defi platform in March of this year

Sberbank plans to launch the Ethereum blockchain network-supported Defi platform.

PJSC Sberbank is a Russian majority state-owned banking and financial services company. This bank is headquartered in Moscow. It was called the Sberbank of Russia until 2015. Sberbank has operations in several European nations, primarily post-Soviet countries. After the Russia vs Ukraine conflict, Sber saw a significant downfall in its operations in the EU because of the international financial sanction on Russia.

On 3 Feb 2023, Russian media outlet Interfax reported that SberBank planned to launch the Ethereum blockchain-supported Decentralised Finance (DeFi) platform in early March of this year.

Konstantin Klimenko, the Product Director of the Blockchain Laboratory at Sberbank, confirmed that SberBank’s Ethereum Defi platform has been developed & currently available in the beta version. Klimenko said that the official launch of this Defi platform will take place before May 2023.

Sberbank official said:

“We have set ourselves a big goal – to make the Russian DeFi ecosystem number one (decentralized finance system – IF). Our network is now operating in the format of closed beta testing. (…) From March 1, we will move to the next phase; it will no longer be beta testing, but open testing.”

Sberbank official believe that the bank’ Defi platform will be available to use sometime in April and the Bank will open the platform for commercial operations.

Many reports claimed that SberBank’s Defi platform will also allow the transactions of the crypto assets to/from Ethereum Defi digital wallet MetaMask.

According to Klimenko, the Defi platform has the potential to create very big competition against traditional financial systems and this is the reason why Sberbank worked tirelessly to jump into the decentralised Crypto platform.

Earlier this, in Nov 2022, Sberbank confirmed that its engineers are working to develop a bridge between traditional finance & Crypto market via blockchain technology.