Russian Central Bank to Expand Digital Ruble Pilot in September

The Russian Central Bank will finally expand its digital ruble pilot in September, widening its CBDC’s reach “by tens of times.”

Pravda reported that the new “phase” of the pilot will see the digital ruble offered to “real clients with real money from September 1.”

Digital Ruble Pilot Set for September Expansion

The bank’s First Deputy Governor Olga Skorobogatova told the Russian Financial Congress:

“We are expanding our pilot to encompass real transactions from September 1. […] Currently, 12 banks are taking part in the pilot. And 19 more are in the process of joining the pilot. We want to significantly increase the number of individuals and companies that can participate in the pilot.”

The bank launched its CBDC pilot just over a year ago, with some 600 selected individuals in 11 Russian cities taking part.

The pilot has since seen only minor expansion, with the Moscow Metro integrated, along with a small group of large banks.

Several months ago, the Central Bank said that it would expand its pilot network to include a “second group of banks.”

However, the Central Bank refused to put a timeframe on this expansion. Skorobogatova and other senior bank officials have previously announced their intention to roll the CBDC out nationwide by the end of 2025.

Skorobogatova added that the Central Bank has received a “huge number of applications and requests” to use the digital ruble “from citizens and businesses” around the country.

She added that there was now a “real demand” that “the project be expanded to all banks and a larger number of participants.”

Skorobogatova concluded that she “believes” that the digital ruble project “will develop very actively in the second half of 2024 and next year.”

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Thousands of Companies to Join CBDC Pilot

The Central Bank later clarified Skorobogatova’s statement. It added that the pilot would be “expanded to 9,000 individuals and 1,200 legal entities” later this year.

The Central Bank said earlier this year that its commercial banking partners have overseen “some 19,000” peer-to-peer CBDC transactions thus far.

The bank also said pilot users have made “about 6,000 payments” with the digital ruble, in addition to “3,5000 smart contract transactions.”

The Central Bank is still in favor of outlawing crypto exchanges in Russia as part of its drive to keep tokens “out of the national economy.”