Russia to commence digital ruble pilot testing with 13 banks

The pilot program for the digital currency will begin on August 15

article-image

ID1974/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

Next week, the Bank of Russia will begin testing out real world transactions with its digital ruble, a central bank digital currency that was approved by President Vladimir Putin in late July.

Thirteen banks — excluding Russian banks Sberbank and Tinkoff — will be involved in the pilot testing program. These institutions will be able to make payments with the CBDC at “30 points of sale located in 11 Russian cities,” according to a statement released Wednesday by the nation’s central bank.

If their tests are successful, individuals and businesses should be able to use the digital ruble by 2025, according to Bank of Russia first deputy governor Olga Skorobogatova.

Skorobogatova also reiterated governor Elvira Nabiullina’s statement that the use of the eventual digital ruble would not be mandatory or compelled by the government. 

In the meantime, the pilot program wants to ensure that the infrastructure surrounding the CBDC is functioning and user-friendly before rolling it out for retail and business use.

“The first stage of the pilot testing is intended to check all basic transactions, including opening of digital ruble accounts [digital wallets] and money transfers to them, person-to-person digital ruble transfers, simple automatic bill payments and QR code-based payments for goods and services,” the central bank explained.

New functionality planned for next year includes dynamic QR-code based payments and business-to-business digital ruble transfers. 

The list of participants in the pilot program is also forecasted to increase until the end of the year, the Bank of Russia said.

Once the digital ruble is actually in possession of the country’s populace, Russia will become the largest country among 11 other nations that have actually instituted a CBDC, according to the Atlantic Council’s CBDC tracker.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Research Report Templates (20).png

Research

The dynamic between Ethena, Pendle and Aave exhibits a mutually-beneficial relationship, where the offerings of each business grows the top lines of every party in this exchange. Pendle sits at the intersection of YBA issuers (Ethena) and money markets (Aave), demonstrating heightened utilization rates of YBAs, where the PTs then exhibit profound utilization as collateral. YBA issuers see Pendle as a premier go-to-market venue, often underwriting incentives for liquidity on the market and solving for Pendle’s supply side, while money markets view PTs as attractive collateral types to lend against, solving for Pendle’s demand side. PTs represent a highly profitable collateral listing for Aave, with depositors maxing out the available borrow capacity. Pendle’s recent launch of Boros may now present the most material growth vector beyond what is currently exhibited on V2 markets, offering the ability to price yield, spreads, and duration risk across various points in time out into the future.

article-image

If fear moves markets, there could be more all-time highs to come

article-image

Ether-focused BitMine Immersion saw its daily trading volumes surge this week

article-image

From Ronin’s classic L2 pivot to Taiko’s based rollup and Puffer’s ultra-low-latency appchain testnet, Ethereum-aligned architectures are multiplying

article-image

The Gemini Wallet and Onchain hub are great for total beginners, but have a lot of room to grow

article-image

Airlines defend their rewards moat, Binance courts favor over breakfast, DAT fees pile up and systematic thinking