Specifically, Herman Gref, Sberbank CEO and a former minister of economics and trade of Russia, clarified that the bank had never taken any serious interest about cryptocurrencies.
Alternatively, the bank will concentrate on incorporating blockchain in applications for facilities it offers. Gref supposedly gave his comments in an interview with domestic subscription free TV channel NTV at the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum.
Gref disclosed that Sberbank has hardly received any institution level clients dealing in cryptocurrencies and other related business. He further stated that demands, if any, were from individual clients. With a sigh of relief, he said that the crypto hype has evaporated but the implementation of blockchain tech continues to remain.
The Sberbank CEO also pointed out that he reckons Bitcoin (BTC) as a “technical instrument for transactions,” instead of being a kind of investment. Notably, Gref surprisingly stated that he had bought Bitcoin when it was trading at $5 and used it as a mode of payment instead of storing it as an asset of value.
Gref also revealed that a portion of his Bitcoin holdings was lost together with codes, and stressed that he is not a “casino player.”
Of late, Sberbank was said to be curbing its crypto related initiatives due to Russian central bank’s negative point of view on the crypto sector and also the dearth of appropriate regulation. Back in May, the bank had petitioned a customer to provide information relation to the income from crypto, including the crypto wallet address, hash rate indicators and mining hardware.