Russia’s Largest State Bank to Open Cryptocurrency Exchange in Europe

According to local media reports on Tuesday, January 30, Sberbank, Russia’s largest state bank, plans to open a cryptocurrency exchange at its Swiss branch, Sberbank Switzerland AG.

The bank’s Head of Global Markets Andrey Shemetov told RBC that the Russian bank has chosen Switzerland as the stock market location because the Russian authorities currently do not allow cryptocurrency transactions and the cryptocurrency exchange is valid in Switzerland.

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Shemetov continued:

“We want to serve the interests of customers, so we think we should have strategic access to all kinds of products and services”.

According to RBC’s report, Sberbank is currently developing its trading infrastructure, but Shemetov has not yet specified when the exchange will start trading.. Hemetov also said that cryptocurrencies carry high risk due to market volatility and said:

“Cryptocurrency exchange transactions will only be available to legal entities”.

This earlier in the month, Sberbank chairman Herman Gref said that cryptocurrencies should not be banned “under any circumstances”. He stated that cryptocurrencies and Blockchain are “massive new technologies whose power is currently unknown.” and presented the Digital Assets Regulation, which defines and establishes a regulatory system for commerce.

According to the latest developments in the bill, the Ministry of Finance has legalized trading in cryptocurrencies because of its transparency potential, reducing the risk of fraud and increasing the tax revenue of the government.

Local cryptocurrency news site Forklog says that the final version of the bill will be released before July 1, 2018, meaning that the current version could be modified before it goes into effect.

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