Alfa-Bank, Russia’s largest private bank, is preparing a broader push into digital assets as the country moves closer to a formal regulatory framework. According to RBC Investments, Dmitry Vitman, chief operating officer of Alfa-Bank’s corporate and investment banking business, said the bank plans to launch its own digital depository and offer clients a full range of cryptocurrency services once the rules take effect.
The bank is not limiting the plan to its own customer base. Vitman said Alfa-Bank wants to provide custody to the wider market, though that depends on regulations Russia is still completing. For now, the timetable for rollout remains tied to the legal framework.
Custody is the first building block
Vitman described custody as the foundation for everything that follows. In his words, the bank plans “to create our own digital depository and offer its services to other companies.” Retail brokerage would come next across both Russian and international channels, with a possible launch in late 2026 or early 2027 if the digital currency law takes effect in September 2026.
Alfa-Bank is also tempering expectations for the market’s early phase. The bank does not expect meaningful liquidity or trading volumes in Russia’s crypto market before late 2027. Vitman linked the broader expansion to the speed at which regulators publish final rules, saying the market is likely to develop gradually rather than appear at full scale from the start.
Russia shifts the start date to September 1
Russia has set September 1 as the start date for crypto regulation, pushing the schedule back from an earlier July 1, 2026 target. First Deputy Central Bank Chairman Vladimir Chistyukhin expects the regulations needed for the first legal transactions to be published by November.
The draft law has already passed its first reading in the State Duma. It recognizes crypto exchanges and digital depositories as new categories of professional market participants. Depositories that already hold a depository license would not need to obtain a separate one from the central bank, giving established financial institutions a clearer route into the sector.
Open blockchain products are also part of the plan
Beyond custody and brokerage, Alfa-Bank wants to create Russian investment instruments on open blockchains that could attract foreign investors. The goal is to keep capital connected to domestic infrastructure. Vitman argued that Russia needs competitive local products of its own, or it will have little to offer international participants.
“It’s important for Russia to develop its own instruments, otherwise we’ll have nothing to offer. We need to attract investors to our infrastructure, so we need to create products that can compete globally.”
Large banks and exchange infrastructure are moving in parallel
Alfa-Bank is entering a field that other major Russian financial groups are already building out. Sberbank is preparing a crypto wallet and a digital depository by December 1, with plans for authorized crypto transactions inside its Sber and SberInvestments apps. T-Technologies, which controls T-Bank, plans a depository on its Atomize digital financial asset platform and crypto sales through its T-Investments broker. VTB also intends to build its own depository for storing and recording digital assets inside Russia.
The Moscow Exchange expects to conduct its first crypto transactions by the end of 2026. Russia’s model is being oriented toward cross-border trade rather than domestic payments, which remain banned. Outside the main legislation, the Bank of Russia is also considering a system that would allow banks and brokers to operate crypto exchanges through a simplified notification process, while a separate framework would cap non-qualified investors at 300,000 rubles per year.