The largest bank in Russia, Sber, has announced that its proprietary blockchain platform will be compatible with Ethereum.

In a press release, the bank, whose majority shareholder is the Russian government with a “50% + 1 share” option, announced the new capabilities for its proprietary open blockchain platform.

The announcement was made during the first international meeting of blockchain industry participants for businesses. The organizer of the event was Sber Blockchain Laboratory.

Russia’s Sber Integrates Ethereum

As the announcement states, the Sber platform will be technologically compatible with the world’s largest decentralized financial ecosystem, Ethereum.

This means that developers will be able to freely transfer smart contracts and entire projects between the bank’s blockchain network and Ethereum.

Sber’s blockchain platform will also integrate with ConsenSys’ MetaMask wallet, which has recently come under fire for IP tracking. Users and developers will be able to issue their own tokens and create smart contracts.

In addition, integration with the bank’s information systems will allow payments in smart contracts to be made in rubles.

“The Sberbank blockchain laboratory works closely with external developers and partner companies, and I am glad that our community will be able to run DeFi applications on Sber’s infrastructure,” said Alexander Nam.

The director of the Sberbank Blockchain Laboratory expressed optimism that “given the rapid development of Web3, platforms supporting various blockchain protocols will be in increasing demand.”

And Sber will be able to bring together developers, enterprises and financial institutions in both joint market research and development of practical business applications, the announcement said.

Russia Pioneers Blockchain

Notably, Sber had also launched Russia’s first blockchain ETF in December last year. Moreover, in early 2021, Sber had applied to the Russian Central Bank for permission to launch its proprietary stablecoin “Sbercoin”.

Permission was granted by the central bank in the spring of 2022, after which Sber completed its first transaction with its digital currency in June.

Remarkably, Sber’s announcement came just days after Russian President Vladimir Putin voiced his support for an international payment system based on blockchain technology.

Putin criticized the monopoly in global financial payment systems, saying that the current global financial system “is controlled by a small club of states and financial groups.”

At a conference organized by Sberbank, Putin said the new system must be independent of banks and third-party interference. According to him, this new system needs to be based on a digital currency and blockchain technology.

At press time, the Ethereum (ETH) price was at $1.274. Yesterday, the price was rejected at the key resistance level of $1310 and may now seek support at $1231.

Only after that, ETH is likely to tackle the resistance zone at $1350, which raises the prospect of a breakout above the price levels before the FTX crash.