Sberbank plans to accept bitcoin, Ethereum and the Tether stablecoin as loan collateral after the Bank of Russia permits the assets for public circulation and the country’s new crypto rules take full effect.
Anatoly Popov, deputy chairman of Sberbank’s management board, outlined the plan in an interview excerpt published by TASS. He said the bank would adapt its existing products to the new requirements and then expand its range of crypto-backed loans.
Popov separately said Sberbank was seeing demand from businesses, particularly miners and companies for which crypto represents a significant part of their assets. Their main request was to obtain liquidity without selling bitcoin, according to a second TASS excerpt.
Popov also said improved methods for valuing digital collateral could open the product to a broader group of clients.
Sberbank has previously conducted a pilot transaction using crypto as loan security. In December 2025, the bank made a pilot corporate loan to Russian mining operator Intelion Data, with digital currency mined through the company’s own computing infrastructure serving as collateral, according to Intelion’s account.
