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

Flashnote Template (41).png

Research

We believe that few tokens at the application layer are diverging more from fundamentals than ZORA. Its fully-diluted P/S sits at 90x, pricing significant growth despite a consistent decline in weekly revenues since late July. We foresee an 80% decrease in protocol net margins due to a recent update to the fee structure that reduces trading fees from 3% to 1%, while boosting creators’ portion of the fee split. ZORA’s supply overhang also represents a near-term headwind, with 45% of ZORA’s supply (4.5B tokens or $350M at current prices) earmarked for the team & investors beginning to unlock on October 23, 2025 (36-month linear vesting schedule).

article-image

Insiders have the best information — markets should be willing to pay for it

article-image

The CFTC-regulated exchange is opening doors to crypto builders and traders through grants, partnerships, and new deposit options

by Blockworks /
article-image

DFS tells banking organizations to integrate blockchain monitoring tools to curb money laundering and sanctions risks

by Blockworks /
article-image

New short and long-term priorities include L1 gas boosts, ZK-EVMs, privacy reads, and a lean, quantum-resistant Ethereum

by Blockworks /
article-image

The new stBTC token redistributes Bitcoin gas fees to users, creating liquid yield without inflation or lockups

by Blockworks /
article-image

The reserve will collect protocol revenues to back W token, alongside new yield and unlock schedule

by Blockworks /