Russia's Largest Private Bank Alfa-Bank Plans to Offer Cryptocurrency Services to Clients

CoinFeed July 9 news, according to Bits.media report, Russia's largest private bank Alfa-Bank announced plans to become a digital depository and provide cryptocurrency-related services, not only for its own clients but also for other legal entities. Alfa-Bank's Operations Director Dmitry Vitman stated that the bank hopes to create investment instruments based on open blockchains to attract foreign investors and develop its own products and tools that can compete in international markets. He expects that after the government's crypto regulation bill takes effect, retail brokerage business may appear in Russia around the end of 2026 to early 2027, involving Russian and foreign infrastructure, but large-scale liquidity is not expected earlier than the end of 2027. A digital depository is a regulated entity responsible for monitoring all client crypto transactions and freezing transfers to addresses not approved by the state, according to Russian law.