Over 130 countries are exploring digital currencies in response to declining cash usage and competition from cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

German Gref, CEO of Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, is making headlines for expressing skepticism about the digital ruble during a financial forum in St. Petersburg on July 2, 2025.

His opinion contrasts with Russia’s push to implement the digital ruble, with the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) mandating that banks offer digital ruble payment options by September 1, 2026.

Gref struggles to see how digital currencies benefit Russia

On Wednesday, German Gref, CEO of Russia’s dominant lender Sberbank, stated that he was having trouble seeing any potential benefits to Russia developing the digital ruble, except for cross-border settlements.

According to the central bank last week, Russian banks will have to offer customers the means to make payments with digital rubles from September 1, 2026, postponing the project’s planned launch by over a year.

Russia’s interest in the digital ruble comes at a time when over 130 countries are exploring digital versions of their currencies as the world’s financial authorities grapple with declining cash usage and the very real threat to their money-printing powers from new developments like Bitcoin.

Moscow will be banking on the digital ruble to simplify foreign trade payments that have been complicated by Western sanctions over the conflict in Ukraine. However Gref is having trouble getting onboard.

“I don’t see its advantages,” he told reporters at the financial forum in St. Petersburg. “As an individual, I don’t understand why digital rubles are needed. As a bank… I don’t yet understand it very well either.”

Gref highlighted how Russian banks already have strong digital finance capacities, including cashless settlements, before reiterating that he could see no future in which the digital ruble meaningfully transforms Russia’s economy.

No digital currency has become dominant within any country, he pointed out, but there could be a future in cross-border settlements. “Domestically, I don’t see it yet,” he said.

Other countries are exploring digital currencies

As things stand, over one hundred countries and currency unions are seriously considering CBDCs as an answer to various factors, including declining cash use and diversion to cryptocurrencies.

Countries like the Bahamas and Jamaica already have their own CBDCs, while others like China, Brazil, India, and Hong Kong have launched CBDC pilot programs.

China leads with the largest CBDC pilot, with 260 million people across multiple cities since 2020. Today, its CBDC is used in over 200 retail scenarios and is being pushed for cross-border payments to reduce reliance on the US dollar.

Russia’s digital ruble launched its pilot in August 2023 with 15 banks and 9,000 participants as of October 2024. Even though Gref finds it hard to see why Russia needs a digital ruble, there is no doubt it will come in handy where cross-border payments are concerned, especially under sanctions, to bypass systems like SWIFT.

In the US, the Federal Reserve has been researching CBDCs, with a focus on improving the domestic payment system. Unfortunately, the chances of the US creating a retail CBDC is almost nonexistent thanks to a May 2024 House bill which prohibits direct issuance as well as President Trump’s executive order banning CBDCs.

Instead, the United States is in different stages of passing stablecoin legislation, including the CLARITY, GENIUS and STABLE Acts.

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