Sber assessed the potential of the exchange turnover of the crypto market in the Russian Federation

MOSCOW, October 8 – RIA Novosti. The potential turnover of the Russian exchange crypto market could amount to 1-2 trillion rubles, said Senior Vice President, Head of the Wealth Management block of Sberbank PJSC Ruslan Vesterovsky at the Present Future forum, which was organized by SberInvestments.

“The legalization of cryptocurrencies in general will have a positive impact on the stock market. Our conservative view is 1 trillion, the optimistic view is 2 trillion. Therefore, I think that this is an absolutely correct story,” Vesterovsky said in a conversation with reporters.

According to him, the key sources of growth will be the influx of new capital and the repatriation of funds from foreign exchanges.

“Legalization does not create demand from scratch, but opens a funnel for transferring the already existing multi-billion dollar turnover into a white circuit. There it becomes observable, taxable and monetizable for sites. The second source is new money from those who previously avoided investments due to the illegal status of cryptocurrencies, but will be ready to invest in a regulated environment,” Vesterovsky emphasized.

He added that technological solutions already exist, and by December 1, the necessary infrastructure will be ready and the necessary licenses will be obtained. Already now, Sber makes it possible to test the purchase of three cryptocurrencies at special stands.

Earlier, Sberbank told RIA Novosti that demand from residents has already been formed. According to conservative estimates of the Bank of Russia, average monthly balances on foreign crypto exchanges in the second and third quarters of 2025 amounted to about 930 billion rubles: 62% were in Bitcoin, 16% in Ethereum, 22% in other assets. However, the statistics do not take into account funds in “cold wallets” and decentralized finance (DeFi) systems.

Currently, Russians’ investments in legal Russian digital instruments (including digital financial instruments and bonds tied to the value of cryptocurrencies) remain at a relatively low level: the volume of structured products is estimated by the Central Bank at $3.7 billion. Sber expects that the creation of infrastructure will significantly increase this segment.

Among the bank's growth drivers are institutional demand, the development of the DeFi segment, as well as the emergence of new blockchain-based products - in particular, services for staking and lending secured by crypto assets.