​Russia’s State Duma tentatively approves the law on the merger of blockchain platforms and marketplaces

What’s new? On February 15, the Russian State Duma passed in the first reading the draft law that will allow financial marketplaces to combine operations with blockchain platforms that issue or exchange digital financial assets (DFAs). The document was submitted for consideration in October 2022, Interfax reports.

Interfax’s material

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 is the essence of the draft law? The law on the creation of a financial marketplace in Russia (“On Making Financial Transactions using a Financial platform”) was adopted in the summer of 2020. Through the platform, Russians can conclude transactions for the provision of banking and insurance services, services in the securities market, as well as deals with financial instruments.

The operator of the financial platform must ensure the execution of transactions between financial institutions or issuers and individuals. It must be an organization in the form of a joint stock company with its own funds of at least 100 million Russian rubles, included in a special register of the Bank of Russia.

Such an operator has no right to combine its work with its activity as a credit organization, except for the activity of a trade organizer, depositary, registrar, or operator of an investment (crowdfunding) platform.

The draft law on the possibility of merging blockchain platforms and financial marketplaces introduces another exception. Thus, the operators of the information system, in which the issue of DFAs is carried out, are removed from the ban on combining activities. According to the authors of the draft law, it “will contribute to the formation of new business models in the financial market, based on the digital transformation of financial services.”

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.

Also, the draft law proposes to include the issuers of securities and persons acting on their behalf, in the number of buyers of securities in deals carried out with the use of a financial platform. In addition, if the document is adopted, unqualified investors will be able to buy government securities of the subject of Russia without testing.

Earlier, Rosbank jointly with the Atomyze platform conducted the first deal on the purchase of DFA for gold for digital rubles, and the Ministry of Finance supported the idea of bringing DFAs to Russian exchanges to attract investors and increase trading volumes.