Gazprombank Forms Blockchain Joint Venture With Russian Enterprises

Russia’s large enterprises and state-owned Gazprombank have formed a partnership to start a series of new blockchain and digital economy related projects. The enterprises which have announced their willingness to join the initiative are MegaFon, government enterprise Rostec, Gazprombank, and the USM Group.

The joint venture, dubbed MF Technologies (MFT), is worth $450 million. With a 59% stake in ‘mail.ru’, the Russian internet giant, MF Technologies will focus on developing digital financial solutions using Gazprombank’s resources.

Magafon has said that MFT will

“allow partners to maximally effectively implement comprehensive, innovative projects across industries, to implement solutions based on blockchain technology and the Internet of Things.”

Sergey Soldatenkov, CEO of MegaFon, opined that setting up a separate joint venture is a

“natural step in the implementation of our corporate strategy to achieve the ambitious goal of digital leadership.”

Russia’s TASS has also reported that Rostec plans to develop digital technologies by utilizing the expertise of the organization. It can be remembered that Gazprombank had announced its intention to test cryptocurrency transactions from its Switzerland branch, at the end of March.