Russia's largest bank is taking a decisive step toward legalizing digital assets. Sber has officially launched a cryptocurrency international settlement service for corporate clients, fundamentally changing the speed and cost of foreign trade transactions.
Transferring funds from one crypto wallet to another now takes just minutes instead of the usual days required for bank transfers. At the same time, the average transaction fee is only 0.3% — significantly lower than the rates of traditional financial instruments, making the new service highly attractive for exporters and importers.
How the new service works
The service is available to all corporate clients of Sber engaged in foreign economic activity. Importantly, there is no minimum payment threshold, and all necessary documentation for banks and currency control authorities is generated automatically at the moment of the transaction. This removes a significant portion of the administrative burden from businesses.
The launch is a logical continuation of the experimental regime that the Central Bank had been testing since September 2024. The pilot project confirmed high demand for such solutions. Legislation also played a key role: the President of Russia signed a law on the systemic regulation of cryptocurrencies, which came into force on September 1, 2026. The most important exception — the ban on paying for goods with cryptocurrency domestically remains in place, but settlements under foreign trade contracts between residents and non-residents have been removed from restrictions. It is this provision that opened the door for Sber to conduct cross-border payments without the risk of violating the law.
Similar practices are already widely used in the European Union, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, the UAE, Iran, Japan, and Turkey. Sber is bringing proven global approaches to the Russian market, which reduces operational risks.
The bank's strategic direction
International settlements are just one element of the bank's extensive crypto strategy. Earlier, Sber already announced plans to issue instruments tied to digital assets: client investments in such products have exceeded 2 billion rubles. The bank intends to expand its lineup of structured bonds and digital financial assets (DFAs) linked to BTC and ETH. In parallel, trading infrastructure is being built: the launch of cryptocurrency trading and a digital depository is scheduled for December 1, 2026, which will provide qualified investors with a legal banking alternative to foreign platforms.
Together with international payments, this forms a full cycle: from trading and storing assets to using them in real transactions with foreign partners. The bank is also betting on technology — in August, an autonomous AI agent called "GigaAgent" was introduced, which manages documents and prepares reports without step-by-step oversight. This confirms that cryptocurrency settlements are part of Sber's broader strategy to implement advanced financial technologies for the corporate sector.
My view: this is a landmark signal for the entire market. Sber is not just testing a niche but building a full-fledged ecosystem that could become a bridge between traditional finance and DeFi. For businesses, this means not only faster settlements but also reduced dependence on conservative banking corridors, which is critically important in the current geopolitical conditions.