Sberbank to Launch DeFi, Trial Starts March 2023

JAKARTA – The largest bank in Russia, Sberbank, plans to launch a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform in the next few months. This was first reported by the Interfax news agency.

Sberbank says it wants to make Russia's decentralized financial system the best in the world, and is currently testing its own beta platform.

Decentralized financial platforms allow users to carry out ordinary banking transactions, such as lending, saving and investing, based on a distributed ledger, or blockchain technology.

Advocates say it could reduce banking costs and eventually even replace traditional banks. While critics say the system has little real-world use and suffers from the same weaknesses as the crypto world, such as a lack of regulation and vulnerability to fraud and money laundering.

Traditional financial institutions are looking for ways to get into the digital space and integrate DeFi technologies with their existing regulated operations.

According to the Interfax news agency citing Konstantin Klimenko, head of product at Sberbank's blockchain laboratory, the bank will launch open testing next March of its platform and aims to start commercial operations by the end of April,

“Sberbank's DeFi platform will be based on the Ethereum blockchain, the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization after bitcoin,” Klimenko said on Friday, quoted by Reuters from Interfax.