«SberBusiness» Adds Tools for Cross-Border Crypto Payments
Sberbank plans to launch international payments using cryptocurrency in the SberBusiness app by the end of this year. The new payment option will be built into the existing foreign-trade workflow, allowing businesses to use digital currency without leaving the banking environment.*
In parallel, the bank will expand lending secured by digital assets. Demand for the service is expected to be strong, particularly among miners who need access to fiat currency for a set period without selling their bitcoin. The mechanism has already been tested: in December 2025, Sber issued a pilot crypto-backed loan to mining company Intelion.
Crypto Payments Within the Banking System
Business customers will be able to conduct cryptocurrency transactions as part of their foreign-trade operations directly through the banking app they already use. To make that possible, the bank is linking remote banking systems, crypto-asset custody infrastructure, blockchain networks, foreign-exchange controls and accounting within a single digital environment. By December this year, Sber also plans to launch its own digital depository, creating an end-to-end infrastructure for handling digital assets.
The bank already operates the information system used to issue and circulate digital financial assets, so it will not need an additional license to operate under the new framework. In 2025, the platform issued digital financial assets worth 408 billion rubles (about $4.7 billion). In other words, Sber already has the technology to work with blockchain and is now integrating new IT tools to give customers additional capabilities. For exporters, custody services, blockchain analytics and automated compliance within a regulated framework should make international payments easier to manage. Thus, crypto payments will become comparable in complexity to conventional foreign-currency transfers.
The Tsifrovoy valyute i tsifrovykh pravakh (Digital Currency and Digital Rights Law), adopted in July this year, took effect on September 1. A 10-month transition period is now underway, giving professional cryptocurrency market participants time to build the required infrastructure, obtain licenses and launch their products, while the Bank of Russia can adopt additional regulations. By July 2027, Russia is expected to have a fully established regulated crypto infrastructure.
Crypto as Loan Collateral
The country’s largest banks began preparing for implementation of the digital currency law well in advance. VTB, Alfa-Bank and T-Bank, for example, announced in July that they were working on digital depositories. The focus now is on integrating tools that give users legal access to crypto investments while simplifying foreign-trade processes.
As Sber introduces new mechanisms for cross-border digital-currency payments, it will also expand crypto-backed lending. In addition to bitcoin, the bank plans to accept Ethereum and USDT as collateral. Anatoly Popov, deputy chairman of the management board of Sberbank, said the bank is seeing significant demand from companies for which cryptocurrency has become a meaningful part of their assets.
“Their key request is to obtain liquidity without selling bitcoin. That is why we are in discussions with the regulator so that, when structuring these transactions, the bank can rely more heavily on the value and quality of the digital collateral rather than only on the borrower’s traditional financial metrics,” Popov said.
Scaling Up
Sber issued its first loan secured by mined cryptocurrency in December 2025, using a hardware Rutoken device and testing the technologies for asset circulation, storage and accounting. Russia began using digital currency for foreign-trade settlements a year earlier under an experimental legal regime. With the adoption of a new law governing digital-currency circulation in 2026, that experience is set to be scaled broadly through banking infrastructure for corporate customers.
Hybrid Settlement Model
Sber’s project moves cryptocurrency from the category of alternative payment schemes toward becoming a standard tool for digitizing foreign trade. In the short term, other major banks are expected to launch similar services as they compete for corporate customers in the cross-border payments segment. The IT infrastructure needed to support them is already taking shape. Demand is likely to remain high for information-security technologies, blockchain analytics, automated compliance and the integration of new payment instruments into remote banking systems. The scalable crypto-custody solutions could allow not only the largest financial institutions but also mid-sized market participants to enter the sector within three years. Ultimately, Russia’s digital economy will move toward a hybrid model of international settlements in which customers can choose between national currencies and cryptocurrencies, and eventually digital rubles, depending on the specific foreign-trade contract.
