Russia’s Sberbank Announces Integration with Metamask and Compatibility with Ethereum

• Sber Russia’s largest lender said that it was integrating the crypto wallet MetaMask with its own blockchain system. 
• Notably, Sber also launched Russia’s first blockchain ETF in December last year

The Russian banking system announced its plans to be fully compatible with the Ethereum(ETH) DeFi ecosystem. The announcement comes after Russian president Vladimir Putin called for a digital payment system meant for international settlements.

The announcement was made during the first international meeting of blockchain industry participants for businesses. The organizer of the event was Sber Blockchain Laboratory.

Putin criticized the monopoly in global financial systems, expressing his confidence in developing digital currencies-based technology that will drive independence from banks and third parties.

The integration with Metamask one of the most popular cryptocurrency wallets comes with new opportunities, this includes incompatibility with smart contracts and applications on the Ethereum network.

Developers will have the privilege to freely transfer the smart contracts of their projects between the Sber blockchain and public blockchain networks hence raising demand for blockchain platforms.

Furthermore, the development of the cryptocurrency wallet, Metamask communicates with the Ethereum blockchain. This will enable users to make operations with tokens and smart contracts that are placed on the Sber blockchain platform.

Sber Blockchain Lab works closely with external developers and partner companies, and I am glad that our community will be able to run DeFi applications on Sber’s infrastructure.

Head of blockchain lab Alexander Nam said.

The Sber blockchain will unite developers, co-operations, and financial institutions allowing them to explore practical business applications on the blockchain, Web3, and decentralized finance systems.

Over the years, Sber has been actively developing products, it filed an application with the bank of Russia to launch a blockchain platform for its stablecoin “Sbercoin”.

The money lender announced its new cryptocurrency after receiving approval from the Central bank in June. The Sbercoin majority shareholder is its government with more than 50% share. Notably, Sber also launched Russia’s first blockchain ETF in December last year.

On Nov. 7, Russia’s Central Bank opened public consultations on stablecoins, NFTs, and other tokenized financial instruments, signaling renewed openness to the growth of crypto in the country.