Currently Russia is in the focus of sports coverage due to the World Cup taking place there. Now the country is attracting attention again in the crypto world. The two largest banks in Russia introduce crypto currency portfolios for their private customers.

As the Kommersant newspaper reported on June 15th, Sberbank and Alfa Bank will include a special fund in their offerings, which includes six cryptocurrencies. The Russian Central Bank is to take over supervision. The fund is expected to trade among other things Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum and Litecoin on major crypto exchanges such as Kraken and Bitstamp.

Cooperation in the service of crypto-adaptation

Sberbank is the largest state-owned payroll processing bank and plans to open the first official ICO this year perform. Alfa Bank is the largest private bank in the country. With the help of the investment fund AddCapital, the National Settlement Deposit (National Settlement Depository) and the company Goup IB, the banks want to master the leap into the crypto world. While Group IB is to ensure cybersecurity, the National Settlement Depot will function as a custodian bank as part of the Moscow Stock Exchange. AddCapital will take over the technical responsibility. Its CEO Alexei Prokofiev said that part of the fund will be purchased as part of the investment process.

Sberbank Private Banking Vice-Chair Ana Ivanchuk explained this cooperative work as follows:

“We want to offer our customers an absolutely transparent way to invest in digital assets, in accordance with regulations that allow them to invest in the product they are interested in.”

Also Anton Rakhmanov, manager of the private banking department of Alfa Bank, wants to act on behalf of the crypto adaptation:

“Our goal is to accelerate the recognition of digital assets as legitimate financial assets as soon as possible.”

First, it should be the offer is a test that should explore the feasibility of such crypto-portfolios. This is supposed to cover about 45 days. Accordingly, no further data on the process will be announced during this time.