Sber, Russia’s largest universal bank which is majority-owned by the state, has begun marketing a new class of structured bonds whose payouts are indexed to the US-dollar price of Bitcoin and to movements of the dollar against the ruble, opening an officially regulated on-shore route into the world’s pre-eminent cryptocurrency for qualified Russian investors.

Russia Launches Bitcoin Linked Bonds

The notes, announced in a 30 May press release, are denominated in rubles and settle entirely inside the domestic clearing and depository infrastructure. Sber told clients the instrument “provides investors with two yield mechanisms: they can earn income from future US-dollar value changes in Bitcoin and from a possible US-dollar strengthening against the ruble,” while requiring neither a crypt

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