The first digital financial assets may be issued in Russia by the end of 2022

The country is actively working to develop regulation of digital financial assets, says Anatoly Aksakov, head of the Duma Committee on Financial Markets

Russia’s first digital financial assets (DFAs) may be issued by the end of this year, claims Anatoly Aksakov, head of the State Duma Committee on Financial Markets. According to the deputy, they will become the basis for financial mutual settlements and so that “the whole picture” of the relationship between companies will be in a distributed register.

“Digital financial assets are now actively being worked on,” Aksakov stressed during the Moscow Academic Economic Forum.

The deputy recalled that Russia has a law on CFA and three platforms for issuing digital assets have already been registered. The deputy added that two more platforms are on the way. Aksakov called them “in a certain sense” an alternative to financial mutual settlements that exist today based on the dollar, euro and other currencies.

The official also spoke out about the development of a bill regulating digital currencies.

“The government is for regulation, for the legalization of this market, quite strict regulation of this market, and has prepared a bill. It has not yet been submitted to the State Duma, we expect it in the near future,” Aksakov said.

He concluded that the authorities agreed on the need to legalize and regulate mining. This will allow to regulate energy consumption, power supply, “to put in order” with the miners working illegally, who create problems for energy consumption in certain regions.

In April, the Central Bank held a closed meeting with the Moscow Exchange, SPB Exchange, major brokers and information system operators to discuss the concept of trading in digital financial assets. A Kommersant source who attended the meeting said that exchanges were in favor of trading, and brokers mostly supported the concept. Information systems operators were skeptical about the Central Bank proposal.

In March, Sberbank entered the register of operators of information systems to manage CFA. In its message it was said that legal entities would be able to issue their own CFA certifying monetary claims, purchase CFA issued in the information system of Sberbank, as well as to make other transactions with them, provided for by the legislation.

Atomyze, a tokenization service, became the first company on the registry of information system operators in early February. Earlier, Interros of Vladimir Potanin invested in the service.