The Moscow-based state-owned financial services corporation Sberbank intends to introduce a decentralised finance (defi) application, according to a report by the news source Interfax that was released on February 3. According to Konstantin Klimenko, the director of the blockchain laboratory at Sberbank, the platform is presently undergoing closed beta testing.

“We have set ourselves a big goal — to make the Russian defi ecosystem number one,” Klimenko said. “Our network is currently working in closed beta testing format But starting March 1st, we will move to the next phase and it will no longer be beta testing, but open testing,” Sberbank’s blockchain laboratory executive added.

The platform, which will be built on Ethereum, will function with the Metamask Web3 wallet. The Sberbank team expects it will enable extensive commercial defi operations and aims to make it publicly available by the end of April. The Bank of Russia permitted the first transfer of digital assets on the platform used by the giant Russian banking and financial services company in June 2022. Sberbank declared in September that minting non-fungible tokens (NFTs) will be possible on its platform.

With $559 billion in assets under management (AUM) as of 2021, Sberbank is the largest financial institution in Russia outside of the Bank of Russia. With more than 61% of the market, the bank also dominates the Russian Federation's card payments sector. The Russian banking company introduced the country's first blockchain exchange-traded fund in January 2022. (ETF). Since 2015, Sberbank, its management team, and its subsidiaries have embraced blockchain technology.