Multiple Russian corporate giants, including state-owned Gazprombank, have created a joint venture that plans to develop projects in blockchain and the digital economy, local news outlet TASS reported June 9.

Russian telecom company MegaFon, Gazprombank, government corporation Rostec, and the USM Group have created a joint venture – referred to as MF Technologies (MFT) – that is worth $450 mln and has a 59 percent stake in Russian Internet giant mail.ru.

The initiative plans to focus on developing digital financial solutions via Gazprombank resources. According to TASS, MegaFon stated that MFT will:

“allow partners to maximally effectively implement comprehensive, innovative projects across industries, to implement solutions based on blockchain technology and the Internet of Things.”

Sergey Soldatenkov, CEO of MegaFon, added that creating the separate joint venture is a “natural step in the implementation of our corporate strategy to achieve the ambitious goal of digital leadership.”

TASS reported that Rostec plans to utilize the expertise of the organization to develop digital technologies.

This is not Gazprombank’s first foray into the blockchain and crypto space: at the end of March, Gazprombank reported that it would begin testing pilot cryptocurrency transactions in Switzerland.