Russia's central bank has given one of the largest banks in the country, Sberbank, a license to issue and exchange cryptocurrencies, Reuters reports.
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Sberbank, which has been working on its own version of stablecoin dubbed Sbercoin, is now listed on the central bank's register list, along with Lighthouse and Atomyze. Sberbank plans to use blockchain as a platform for other companies to issue their own digital assets. The move comes amid unprecedented Western sanctions that have been imposed against Russian financial sector over events in Ukraine. Sberbank is among many Russian companies which are targeted by US and EU regulators.
In December 2020, Sberbank warned that local financial institutions can lose up to four trillion rubles (~$40 billion) due to a digital version of ruble. Anatoly Popov, Deputy Chairman of the executive board of Sberbank, said that the bank's experts project that the financial sector might lose the significant amount of money just three years after the potential launch of the digital ruble. The analysts also expect that the issuance of the digital ruble by replacing fiat and non-cash money will lead to a "significant" drop of banks' liquidity.
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