[2018-01-31] Russia’s Largest State Bank To Open Cryptocurrency Exchange In Euro

[cybersofts]

Russia’s Largest State Bank To Open Cryptocurrency Exchange In Europe



Sberbank, the largest state bank of Russia, is planning to launch a cryptocurrency exchange in its Swiss branch, Sberbank Switzerland AG, local media group RBC reported on Tuesday, Jan. 30.

The bank’s Head of Global Markets Andrey Shemetov told RBC that the Russian bank chose Switzerland for the exchange location because Russian authorities do not currently allow cryptocurrency operations, while cryptocurrency exchange is legal in Switzerland.

“We wish to serve our customers’ interests, that’s why we think that we need to have strategic access to all kinds of products and services,” Shemetov claimed.

As RBC reports, Sberbank is currently developing their trading infrastructure, but Shemetov did not specify when the exchange is expected to be launched.

Sberbank does not plan to provide cryptocurrency exchange to retail investors but is looking to operate on the institutional level.  “Cryptocurrency exchange operations will be available for legal entities only,” Shemetov stated, adding that cryptocurrency investments are high risk due to market volatility.

Earlier this month, the head of Sberbank, Herman Gref, declared that cryptocurrency should not be banned “under any circumstances”, calling both cryptocurrencies and Blockchain

“new huge technologies whose power cannot be realized at the moment.”

On Jan. 25, Russian authorities presented the Digital Assets Regulation Bill, which defines and establishes a regulatory system for cryptocurrencies, ICOs, mining, and trading.

According to the latest update of the bill, the Ministry of Finance is aiming to legally adopt cryptocurrency trading, since it would reduce the risks of fraud and increase the government’s tax revenue, due to the potential for fiscal transparency.

According to local crypto news site Forklog, the final version of the bill will be officially released no later than July 1, 2018, which means the current version could still be altered before the law goes into effect.


Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/russias-largest-state-bank-to-open-cryptocurrency-exchange-in-europe

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[bbc.reporter]

Sberbank does not plan to provide cryptocurrency exchange to retail investors but is looking to operate on the institutional level.

This is bad news for ordinary cryptocoin users like us. I reckon that will be the future of cryptospace trading, especially to all of you ICO lovers out there. The bankers want control and they want to take our freedom to trade with each other away from us.

But we will see. It will not be that easy for them to control the cryptospace just like it is not easy for media companies to control the sharing of music and movies in bittorrent.

[Samarkand]

Sberbank does not plan to provide cryptocurrency exchange to retail investors but is looking to operate on the institutional level.

This is bad news for ordinary cryptocoin users like us. I reckon that will be the future of cryptospace trading, especially to all of you ICO lovers out there.

...

I wholeheartedly agree with this.

ICOs enabled many users to generate returns that were previously only available
to professional venture capitalists. The barriers of entry to the venture capital scene
are extremely high and it is nearly impossible to get into this for the average individual.
On the other hand all you needed to do to get into an ICO in the beginning of the ICO boom
was to set up an Ethereum wallet and to buy a few ETH.

I expect that eventually the venture capitalists will be the only ones, who will be able
to invest in ICOs due to efforts like the one mentioned above. Besides, many ICOs already
have started to implement minimum investments that are too high for the average mainstream
investor.

Once again it is looking like these kind of returns will only be available to investors that
operate on the institutional level.