Russia’s VTB Bank, the nation’s second-largest bank, is set to offer direct cryptocurrency investments to investors through brokerage accounts. Currently offering services in cryptocurrency derivatives, VTB aims to provide access to digital assets for its clients by next year. This move follows an announcement by Andrey Yatskov, head of VTB Bank’s brokerage services, at a Moscow investment conference. Investors will soon be able to buy, sell, and hold popular cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin directly in their personal or brokerage accounts. Currently, Russia allows only highly-qualified investors to engage in cryptocurrency investments under an experimental legal framework that requires them to have 100 million rubles in traditional investment assets and a yearly income of 50 million rubles.