Russian financial services firm Sberbank is reported to be launching digital currency, Sbercoin in line with the passage of time towards the digital financial system.
According to the Director of the Transactions Market Division, Sergey Popov, Sberbank has submitted a blockchain network application for Sbercoin to the Russian Central Bank earlier this year.
The verification process usually takes 45 days, bringing the expected launch of the digital currency in March this year.
According to Popov, the bank is technically ready to issue and conduct digital currency operations. This means that Russia only needs to wait for the application to be approved to issue digital currencies that comply with the country's financial laws.
Earlier, Popov had announced that Sberbank would probably launch a stablecoin backed by the Russian currency.
Later in November, Sberbank CEO German Gref announced that they would launch the cryptocurrency Sbercoin with an experiment to be conducted in 2021.
Russia is not the first country to venture into the world of digital currency. China has previously conducted experiments on digital yuan with a transaction record of more than four million!
Meanwhile, The Bahamas is the first country to officially have a bank digital currency by October 2020.
