Sber, the state-controlled financial and tech giant, could issue its own digital financial asset, ‘Sbercoin,’ as early as this year. The registration of an in-house blockchain platform, developed for this purpose, is pending final approvals from the regulator.

Sber’s blockchain platform will be made available not only to the bank, but also to other companies that want to issue their own digital assets, said Sber executive Anatoliy Popov earlier this month.

At the beginning of this year, Sberbank filed an application with the Central Bank to register this blockchain platform for issuing a digital currency.

The law on digital financial assets, which was adopted by the State Duma in July 2020 and came into force in January 2021, allows companies to issue their own digital assets and exchange them for other digital assets.