Gref didn't manage to make money on bitcoin. Will Sberbank be able to make money on its own cryptocurrency?

According to the head of Sberbank, he bought bitcoins back when they cost about $5, but did not invest forsavings, and made purchases of everyday things with their help.

“I was doing some purchases at the same time.Then, when he [bitcoin] began to cost a lot of money, and I looked at these T-shirts that I was buying, I realized that they cost me too much. I lost some of them along with the codes. I am not a casino player, ”Gref said.

July 31 Russian President VladimirPutin signed the law “On Digital Financial Assets.” The law, in particular, defines Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, and also prohibits their use in the country as a means of payment from January 1, 2021

Sberbank announced plans to issue a cryptocurrency in the form of a ruble-backed stablecoin.

In November 2020,Gref announced Sberbank’s plans to bring to the market its own blockchain platform, which will provide services for the purchase of digital financial assets (DFAs).

On January 1, 2021, the law ondigital financial assets. This, according to him, will make it possible to fully begin to use blockchain and, in the next few years, will radically change the banking business.

Only four types of digital rights belong to DFA:

 

1. monetary claims,
2. the possibility of exercising rights under equity securities,
3. the right to participate in the capital of a non-public joint stock company,
4. right to demand the transfer of equity securities

Residents of the Russian Federation, according to the law, have the right to own, buy and sell digital currency, borrow and lend it, give it, inherit it, butdo not have the right to use it for payments for goods, works and services(clause 5 of article 14 of the Law)

Sberbank submitted an application for registration to the Central Bankblockchain platform and expects to begin issuing its own digital currency in the spring, said Anatoly Popov, deputy chairman of the bank’s board. He explained that by law, a registered platform is required to issue digital financial assets. “Technologically, the bank is ready to work with such fiat currency, we tested it internally and saw that this solution works,” emphasized Popov (quoted by Interfax).

He explained that the registration procedure takes45 days during which the site will be registered or any comments will be submitted to the bank. “There is a high probability that this project will be launched in the spring,” noted the deputy chairman of Sberbank.

One of the unresolved issues, he said, is the taxation of digital financial assets. But the bank hopes that it will become clearer. "The simplest use of Sbercoin is a digital bill of exchange", said Popov.

Digital financial assets

 

According to paragraph 2 of Art. 1 of the Law:

 

Digital financial assets aredigital rights, including monetary claims, the possibility of exercising rights on equity securities, the right to participate in the capital of a non-public joint stock company, the right to demand the transfer of equity securities, which are provided for by the decision on the issue of digital financial assets in the manner prescribed by this Federal Law, the issue, accounting and whose circulation is possible only by making (changing) records in an information system based on a distributed register, as well as in other information systems

 

stablecoins (stablecoins) - tokens backed by any assets.

– Sberbank stablecoins can become a convenient means of interbank settlements
— the Sberbank token will be pegged to the ruble and can be used for exchange for other cryptocurrencies, can provide liquidity of the cryptocurrency
- speed up transactions within the Sber ecosystem and reduce their cost