A bill introduced in the Russian parliament allows platform operators that provide financial services to also operate blockchain platforms. The legislation will allow them to combine their usual activities in the traditional financial market with the issuance of digital assets.
New law opens the door to the blockchain space for Russian financial service providers
The State Duma, the lower house of parliament in Russia, has adopted on first reading a bill allow financial markets, as defined by another Russian law, to also function as blockchain platforms that facilitate the issuance and exchange of digital financial assets (DFAs).
The legislative initiative comes from a group of lawmakers led by the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Financial Markets, Anatoly Aksakov, crypto news outlets Bits.media and RBC Crypto reported. Its main objective is to help the development of tokenized cashless payments, the digital ruble and DFA.
The latter are regulated by the law “On Digital Financial Assets”, which came into force in January 2021, and mainly covers digital assets with one issuer. Transactions with decentralized cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin have not yet been legalized in Russia.
The new bill is based on the law “On Conducting Financial Transactions Using Financial Platforms,” which came into effect in 2020. It describes such financial platforms as information systems that provide financial organizations with the opportunity to meet consumers. online.
On these platforms, individual investors have access to financial instruments, banking and insurance services, as well as services offered by companies that operate in the stock market. The ability to integrate financial and blockchain services will expand the types of activities its operators can perform and the range of products and services they can provide, the sponsors noted.
Amid Western financial restrictions, the Russian government has been exploring ways to develop its digital asset market. The Central Bank of Russia has already added several entities to its register of authorized DFA issuers. These are the tokenization service Atomyze, the fintech company Lighthouse, as well as Sberbank and Alfa-Bank, the largest state and private bank in Russia, respectively.
Do you think the new law will stimulate the development of blockchain technologies and digital assets in Russia? Tell us in the comment section below.
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