​Russia conducts the first deal to buy DFA for gold for digital rubles

What’s new? The press service of Rosbank reported on the first deal for the purchase of a digital financial asset (DFA) for gold for digital rubles jointly with the Atomyze platform. It involved the exchange of tokenized precious metal between the parties using blockchain technology, which ensured the security and smoothness of the process. Rosbank said the deal “demonstrates the growing interest in DFAs and the need for reliable and secure solutions for these operations.”

Rosbank’s press release

DFAs, like cryptocurrencies, work on the basis of blockchain technology. However, cryptocurrencies differ from DFAs in that they do not have a centralized management body. In addition, in the case of cryptocurrencies, there are usually no financial obligations to holders on the part of the issuer.

What else does the press release say? Representatives of Rosbank told that in order to become an investor or issuer on the DFA platform, the user needs to register, which is available in the mobile and browser versions of the application.

After registration, the data on the transfer of ownership rights for DFA will be displayed in the user’s personal accounts and the token will be stored in a special registry. An investor can place a trade offer to sell digital financial assets in the required volume, and a potential buyer can accept it. In this, the payment to the investor is made in digital rubles.

The issue of DFAs in Russia is carried out on the basis of the permission of the Central Bank, companies need to be registered as an operator of information systems. SberBank and Alfa-Bank, as well as the Atomyze and Lighthouse platforms currently have this status. SPB Exchange and Moscow Exchange are also working on obtaining this status.

In December, Sberbank proposed to legalize payments in DFAs, but the Central Bank did not support the initiative. However, in January the Ministry of Finance supported the idea of bringing DFAs to Russian exchanges. Thus, the Ministry plans to attract investors and increase trading volumes.

Also in January, the State Duma included in the agenda for the first reading a bill on the digital ruble. This is a framework document, a more detailed regulatory framework will be developed by the Central Bank.