Alfa Bank, the largest private bank in Russia, is considering adding cryptocurrency related services to its offerings, according to a report by Cointelegraph, citing local Russian publication RBC. The lender has reportedly began testing crypto trading on its brokerage app with a small set of qualified investors, as per the RBC report.
Access for retail clients will come after the Russian government approves crypto and digital assets related framework and regulations. The bank is looking for this as early as 2026-end, as per the report.
Testing is underway via the bank’s Alfa-Investments and includes a number of tokens such as Bitcoin, Ether, Solana, Tether, USDC, USDt and Zcash, it added.
Alfa Bank did not respond to queries, according to Cointelegraph. Livemint could not independently verify the reports.
Russian banks preparing for govt’s crypto legislation
According to another RBC report on 8 July, Dmitry Vitman, COO of Alfa Bank’s corporate and investment banking division, there are plans to offer a “suite of crypto services” once the Russian government‘s regulation on digital assets is enforced.
These services will, according to Vitman, include:
- Establishing Alfa Bank’s own “digital depository” — similar to a digital asset custodian that stores and manages crypto assets.
- The digital depository will support its own crypto services and provide support and services to other companies, he added.
Regulated by the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, the lender has 510 retail offices in Russia and abroad, according to its website.
The Coin Telegraph report added that other prominent Russian banks — VTB, T-Bank and Sberbank, are also preparing for when the crypto market is regulated.
Russia’s crypto framework gains steam
Notably, the Cointelegraph report noted that Alfa Bank’s enthusiasm for the digital depository, is backed by regulatory focus on the service. The term is a “key part” of the digital assets legislation and establishes such custodians as a new category of participants in the regulated market.
According to a report by Finance Feed, Russia has extended the commencement date of its crypto regulation to 1 September, from 1 July earlier. First Deputy Central Bank Chairman Vladimir Chistyukhin thinks first legal transactions for the bills will likely be published by November this year, it added.
Notably, the Moscow Exchange is expecting to debut its first crypto transactions by 2026-end. The central bank is to this end mulling approval for banks and brokers to run crypto exchanges, with legislation capping non-qualified investors at 300,000 rubles annually.
Another bill in the works, called ‘On Digital Currency and Digital Rights’ was approved from the Russian State Duma in April 2026 after its first reading. The legislation sets up rules for crypto operations under the central banking authority — the Bank of Russia‘s oversight, the Cointelegraph report added.
Also speaking on 8 July, the State Duma’s Financial Market Committee Chairman Anatoly Aksakov said a number of related cryptocurrency legislations are prepped or second reading after amendments suggested during the first readings are added.
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