The Central Bank of Russia announced in late December that it would be testing out its state-backed cryptocurrency within a regulatory sandbox. It appears that the tests are now over and have been completed.
According to a local report, Russia’s Central Bank has completed a pilot project for the issuance and circulation of “digital rights.” This allows it to digitize goods, services, securities, and other assets as well.
Using the platform, any organization can issue digital tokens. Reportedly, this will expand business opportunities when it comes to attracting capital while also creating new convenient investment tools for the consumers.
Speaking on the matter was Ivan Bank, Director of Financial Technologies, who noted:
This was one of the largest sandbox projects. We studied in detail the new business model and its relevance to market needs. An important detail of the service is the use of hybrid tokens, which make it easy to adapt to the needs of business and consumers and provide flexible solutions to attract investment. Based on the results of the piloting, the Bank of Russia proposed to include in the draft federal law “On Digital Financial Assets” the provisions necessary for the introduction and development of such decisions in the emerging digital assets market, which were supported by government agencies and businesses.
As per the report, the blockchain platform will be able to start its activities as soon as the federal law “On Digital Financial Assets” goes into force. Supposedly, this draft bill is already finalized.
Cryptoptato reported back in December that the Central Bank of Russia is testing digital currencies backed by real assets in a regulatory sandbox. Back then, the head of the bank, Elvira Nabiullina, said:
First of all, we need to understand what will be the advantages to our citizens, for business, for example, compared to instant payment systems, because the issue of the digital ruble can have serious consequences leading to changes in the structure of the financial market, deposits outflows, and funds redistribution.
In any case, it’s important to outline that this appears like a serious step towards further blockchain adoption. If Russia’s Central Bank, and its regulators, approve and legitimize the ability to digitize assets and convert them into tokens, this could potentially bring back capital raising methods like Security Token Offerings (STOs) and even Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs). It remains interesting to see whether Russia will put this legislation forward and if it will genuinely allow the tokenization of assets.