Bitcoin Daily: Russia’s Sberbank To Launch Stablecoin This Year; Pornhub Expands Crypto Payment Options

Russia’s Sberbank could roll out its stablecoin as early as this spring after filing with the Bank of Russia to launch a blockchain platform, Cointelegraph reported.

The filing process only takes about 45 days, but Sberbank is also still debating how Sbercoin will be taxed, according to Cointelegraph, citing news agency Interfax.

“But we hope that this question will be resolved soon,” Sergey Popov, Sberbank’s director of the Transaction Business, said at a local financial event in Russia, according to Cointelegraph.

Popov also noted Sberbank has completed internal testing of the technology and is “ready to work with such a fiat currency,” the report stated.

In other news, Pornhub added four more cryptocurrencies to the site’s payment options, The Block reported.

The site now supports 16 cryptocurrency payment options, with the additions of XRP, USDC, BNB and DOGE, and the removal of privacy coins Dash and PumaPay, according to the report.

The crypto additions come after Visa and Mastercard last month banned payments processing for Pornhub over allegations that the website had videos portraying child abuse and rape.

Cryptocurrency payments are only supported in some countries, such as the U.S., U.K. and Singapore, The Block noted.

Meanwhile, Nebraska Sen. Mike Flood introduced two bill drafts to allow Nebraska’s banks to provide digital asset custodial services, Cointelegraph reported.

The Transactions in Digital Assets Act and the Adopt the Nebraska Financial Innovation Act introduce a framework for state banks to hold digital assets and create financial institutions that deal in digital coins.

If the bills pass, local courts will also have the jurisdiction to hear claims “in both law and equity relating to digital assets,” Cointelegraph reported, citing the bill.

The legislation is meant to support digital innovation in the state of Nebraska and give innovators access to banking, which currently is often denied to those working in the digital asset space, the report stated.

“The rapid innovation of blockchain and digital ledger technology, including the growing use of virtual currency and other digital assets, has resulted in many blockchain innovators and consumers being unable to access secure and reliable banking services, hampering development of blockchain services and products in the marketplace,” the second bill stated, according to Cointelegraph.