Sberbank Prepares to Accept BTC and ETH as Loan Collateral Amid New Crypto Rules
Russia's largest bank, Sberbank, is planning to accept Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and Tether's USDT as collateral for conventional loans. The move comes ahead of the new crypto framework taking effect on September 1.
Anatoly Popov, deputy chairman of Sberbank's management board, revealed the plans in an interview with Russian state news agency TASS. The expansion will depend on receiving regulatory clearance from the Bank of Russia, allowing the assets to circulate through regulated public markets and completing rules governing their use.
Sberbank has already tested Bitcoin-backed lending in a pilot project with Russian cryptocurrency mining company Intelion Data. The bank issued a corporate loan secured by cryptocurrency mined by Intelion, testing how digital assets could be held as collateral while the borrower received conventional financing.