Russia’s Sberbank Tests DeFi Tools, Offers Crypto Investment Products

Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank, is quietly taking another step toward crypto integration, signaling a shift in how traditional financial giants view decentralized finance. The state-backed lender has begun testing DeFi-related tools while also expanding access to crypto-linked investment products for its clients, according to recent disclosures and industry reports.

This move doesn’t mean Sberbank is going “full DeFi” in the open-protocol sense. Instead, it reflects a controlled and regulated approach, where blockchain technology and decentralized concepts are adapted into bank-friendly frameworks. Think tokenized assets, blockchain-based settlement, and crypto exposure wrapped inside familiar investment products rather than permissionless yield farming.

For Russia, the timing matters. With ongoing sanctions and limited access to global financial infrastructure, blockchain rails offer efficiency, resilience, and alternative settlement mechanisms. Sberbank’s experiments suggest that large institutions see DeFi not as a threat anymore, but as a toolbox they can selectively adopt.

For the broader crypto market, this is another sign that DeFi ideas are bleeding into traditional finance, even in highly regulated or state-controlled systems. While purists may argue this isn’t “real DeFi,” the reality is clear: decentralized finance concepts are influencing how the world’s biggest banks think about money, infrastructure, and future investment products.

It’s not a revolution yet but it’s definitely a signal.