RUSSIA’S CENTRAL BANK LISTS ITS FIRST CRYPTO CUSTODIANS — SBERBANK AND VTB ARE ON IT — YOU CAN BUY BITCOIN THROUGH THEM, BUT PAYING FOR GOODS IN CRYPTO IS STILL BANNED

The Bank of Russia updated two registries on October 6, 2026, under the crypto-market law that took effect September 1. Five firms are now listed as digital depositories, the custodians: VTB Bank, Sberbank, Voltari, Atomyze and Cloud Infrastructure. Four are listed as organizations that exchange digital currencies: VTB again, T-Invest Lab, Zefir and Sistema-Crypto. The names come from the central bank’s own registry files. Cointelegraph calls them the first registered under the law.

Sberbank plans to launch crypto products on December 1 in SberBank Online, SberInvestments and SberBusiness, starting with bitcoin, ether and USDT, according to Cointelegraph and TokenPost. The same framework keeps Russia’s ban on using crypto to pay for goods and services, with the market under the Bank of Russia’s oversight.

Read the list as a custody map. Russia’s largest bank, and VTB, which sits on both lists, will hold the keys for anyone who buys through them. A coin held by a bank is a line in that bank’s books, and the bank answers to the central bank that registered it. Russians can now own bitcoin through the front door. Using it as money is still not allowed.

The point of bitcoin is that nobody has to register you to hold it. If you buy through a listed platform, ask before you buy whether you can withdraw to keys you control. Neither the registry nor the coverage says. At the time of this writing, bitcoin was $83,000.