Alfa-Bank’s crypto custody push tests Russia’s parallel regulatory track

Alfa-Bank, Russia’s largest privately owned lender, is piloting cryptocurrency custody and trading services ahead of a national digital asset framework still working its way through the State Duma, according to a report by Bits.media cited by crypto.news. The move places one of the country’s systemically important banks at the front of a regulatory race that is unfolding largely outside the compliance architecture familiar to UK and EU institutions.

Dmitry Vitman, chief operating officer of Alfa-Bank’s corporate and investment business, said the bank intends to establish itself as a licensed digital depository before expanding into broader crypto services for both retail and corporate clients. “Alfa-Bank plans to offer various services related to digital assets. First and foremost, we need to create our own digital depository,” Vitman said, according to Bits.media.

Custody infrastructure precedes formal licensing

Under the framework Russian authorities are expected to adopt, a digital depository would record and store client crypto holdings, monitor transactions, and block transfers to addresses deemed non-compliant by the state. Alfa-Bank also intends to build investment products on public blockchains aimed at attracting foreign capital, a signal that the bank sees crypto rails as a route around conventional correspondent-banking constraints.

A separate report from RBC Investments indicates Alfa-Bank has already begun testing crypto trading within its Alfa-Investments brokerage application, limited for now to a small cohort of qualified investors. Trading pages reportedly cover Tether, ZCash, Bitcoin, Ethereum, USD Coin, Solana and Litecoin. The bank has said wider client access will depend on the Bank of Russia publishing the necessary implementing acts.

Retail rollout tied to an uncertain legislative timetable

Alfa-Bank has targeted completion of its digital depository and crypto-to-rouble exchange gateways within 2026, with a full retail launch anticipated closer to the fourth quarter of the year, contingent on the regulatory calendar. Vitman cautioned that broad liquidity across Russia’s domestic crypto market may not materialise before late 2027, underscoring that institutional infrastructure is being built well ahead of a mature trading environment.

The pace of that infrastructure build depends heavily on legislation still moving through parliament. crypto.news reported that a State Duma committee has approved a revised bill for a second reading after removing a provision that would have required users to disclose individual wallet addresses, while retaining obligations to report balances and transaction volumes. The draft keeps an annual investment cap of 300,000 roubles for non-qualified investors, permits crypto to be used in purchasing Russian securities and digital financial assets, and would allow authorities to impose a two-day freeze on certain large transfers abroad or to third parties.

State-linked banks are moving in parallel

Alfa-Bank is not acting alone. Sberbank has said it plans to launch a crypto wallet and digital asset depository once the new law takes effect, integrating the service into Sberbank Online and SberInvestments, with custody infrastructure targeted for 1 December. T-Bank and VTB are reportedly preparing similar licensed access, suggesting Russia’s largest banks are positioning simultaneously for a regulated domestic crypto market that remains, for now, legally undefined.

For European observers, the episode illustrates a divergence in regulatory philosophy: while the EU’s MiCA regime and the US GENIUS Act set out detailed, pre-agreed compliance standards before market entry, Russian banks are building custody and trading capability in advance of, and in parallel with, legislation still subject to revision. That sequencing carries its own risks, not least for foreign investors weighing exposure to platforms operating under rules that remain in flux.

Read more: Brussels moves to revise MiCA as US stablecoin law reshapes global rulebook