Despite the Bank of Russia’s prohibition on the bank introducing cryptocurrency investing services, Tinkoff Investments, the online brokerage of big Russian private bank Tinkoff, is looking into it.
Dmitry Panchenko, the head of Tinkoff Investments, stated that the bank’s brokerage portal is contemplating cryptocurrency investment opportunities, but that it is too early to discuss particular ideas.
Panchenko told local news agency TASS on Oct. 28 that the business is currently focusing on research and development projects aimed at a variety of crypto-related services. Tinkoff Investments is particularly interested in crypto goods from firms such as PayPal, the world’s largest payment processor, as well as crypto-friendly applications like Revolut and Robinhood.
Despite local regulators’ refusal to allow companies like Tinkoff Investments to provide crypto investment services, Panchenko stressed that Russians are still actively trading crypto on foreign platforms, with over $15 billion in crypto assets on exchanges:
“One way or another, people get exposure to crypto and they do it outside of the country. It would be potentially correct to provide such services within the Russian legal system. This is not possible legally today, but the issue needs to be discussed and studied more deeply.”
Brokerages like Tinkoff, according to Panchenko, will benefit from the adoption of crypto investment services. He also mentioned that the bank has seen an increase in demand for crypto investments rather than payments, which is prohibited in Russia under the country’s crypto law “On Digital Financial Assets.”
Tinkoff CEO Oliver Hughes claimed months ago that the Russian central bank was preventing Tinkoff from offering crypto trading services. “At the moment, there is no mechanism for us to offer that product to them in Russia because the central bank is in such a difficult position,” Hughes explained.
