Two of Russia’s Largest Banks to Offer Crypto Trading in Six Top Coins

Two of Russia’s largest banks, Alfa Bank and Sberbank, will soon be offering clients access to cryptocurrency portfolios that will permit the trading of six popular coins on major exchanges Kraken and Bitstamp.

Crypto Trading Portfolio
Alfa Bank is the largest private bank in Russia, while Sberbank is state-owned and is responsible for processing government employee pay checks.

According to reports from Russian news outlet Kommersant, the two banks plan to enter crypto trading by seeking help from Group IB and AddCapital investment fund, which will be in charge of providing technical solutions for the project. Also aiding in the development is the National Settlement Depository (part of the Moscow Exchange Group), which will be the portfolio’s custodian.

Anton Rakhmanov, manager of Alfa Bank’s private banking branch said that he hopes the move will ‘speed-up the recognition of the digital assets as legitimate financial assets as soon as possible.’

The portfolio will include the six most popular cryptocurrencies. As per CoinMarketCap, these are Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, EOS, and Litecoin. When operational, the portfolio will be altered at least four times in a given year when a trading algorithm will alter the combination of coins offered as necessary.