The biggest private and state owned Russian banks, Sberbank and Alfa-Bank, are piloting cryptocurrency investing for private investors who are looking to diversify their portfolio according to Financemagnates.

The most interesting part is that while Alfa-Bank is the largest private commercial bank in Russia, Sberbank is the largest state-owned financial institution in the country with a HQ in Moscow. Sberbank is currently ranked number 33 worldwide between banks and has over 80 million customers for its services all over Russia, while also being popular on global territories, where over 10 million customers trusted them with their business.

The fact that a state owned major bank allows investing into Digital Assets makes us confident that the Russian regulatory framework that should be announced around July will have favorable effects on the scene n general.

The current minimum threshold for taking part in the test runs is $500,000. The deputy head of private banking at Sberbank Anna Ivanchuk had the following to say:

“We want to offer our clients a completely transparent version of the entrance to digital assets that fully meets the regulatory requirements that will allow them to invest in an interesting product in Russia.”

Algorithms will manage the portfolios , which was a requirement of both banks, because these are self-adjusting and have worked well previously on different markets according to Alexei Prokofiev who is the chairman of the working group behind the projects. Trading will be done only on regulated exchanges such as Bitstamp and Kraken. This means that these exchanges will gain additional liquidity, which is especially good for larger investors who are looking to enter the market on their own via these exchanges.