Russian bank Sberbank CIB and the National Settlement Depository (NRD) are behind the effort of the country’s first official Initial Coin Offering (ICO) which uses the Bank of Russia’s regulatory sandbox, according to local media.
Sberbank CIB is the investment banking arm of major state-owned bank Sberbank, while NRD is part of the Moscow Stock Exchange Group. The two entities are now finalizing plans with the central bank to launch the project by the end of summer 2018.
Igor Bulantsev, head of Sberbank CIB, said that the bank considers the Russian ICO market to be “highly promising.” According to him, many of the bank’s clients “are interested in this new way of fundraising.” All proceeds from this experimental ICO will be used to launch new tokenized online services by Level One, the company running Moscow’s largest lecture hall, according to reports.