Eurofinance Mosnarbank is going to conduct the first issue of digital financial assets

The number of information system operators (ISOs) that have issued digital financial assets (DFAs) has been expanded by Eurofinance Mosnarbank. Almost six months passed from the moment the operator was included in the Central Bank register until the first issue – the longest period among all participants. Entering the market requires “diverse competencies,” and consolidating them can take a long time, experts say. The players themselves do not yet note high competition for issuers, but they talk about problems with attracting investors, primarily retail ones.

This week the first issue of digital financial assets is going to be issued by Eurofinance Mosnarbank. Almost six months have passed since its inclusion in the register of information system operators, which was the longest period among all participants.

Other IPOs entered the market much faster. In particular, for Sberbank and Lighthouse it took less than four months, for NSD – less than two months, for Alfa Bank – only two weeks. At the same time, St. Petersburg Exchange and Blockchain Hub (a subsidiary of MTS), also included in the register in the summer, have not yet placed a single issue of DFA. Eurofinance Mosnarbank did not respond to Kommersant’s request.

In order to quickly enter the market, the team of the DFA platform operator must have “very diverse competencies”: this includes blockchain infrastructure, a product factory, IT (development of smart contracts and front-end services), risk assessment, and expertise in structuring issues, preparing issue documentation, and the presence of investors, notes Atomize CEO Alexey Ilyasov. Some market participants “need more time to develop these competencies in practice,” he believes.

At the same time, according to Lighthouse CEO Denis Iordanidi, there is no intense competition in the market yet, since each OIS “forms its own specialization and, thus, different niches and areas of application of DFA are closed.” In addition, there are not many problems with potential issuers, says Deputy General Director of Masterchain Maxim Tishchenko.

However, the activity of the OIS is uneven. The largest number of DFA issues—several dozen each—were carried out by Sberbank, Alfa-Bank and Atomize. Other market participants have not yet crossed the ten placement mark.

According to Mr. Tishchenko, “if there is competition, it is more likely for that liquidity that is not yet involved in the DFA.” Denis Polyakov, head of the Digital Economy practice at GMT Legal, explains that it is almost impossible to offer the majority of DFAs to retail investors due to restrictions established by the Central Bank. At the same time, the expert clarifies, in large financial ecosystems it is possible to attract institutional investors to purchase test issues of DFA, while smaller players need to attract not only issuers, but also investors who will be interested in the assets.

For further development of the DFA market, a number of other issues will need to be resolved. In particular, according to Alexey Ilyasov, it is necessary to equalize the tax conditions for digital financial assets and securities so that digital assets are taken into account as part of the general tax base. In addition, he notes, it is necessary to provide access to the instruments of brokers and institutional investors who could provide access to a larger investor base.

The problem of identifying investors—individuals—remains: according to Mr. Ilyasov, the complexity of the registration procedure serves as a serious barrier to citizens entering the DFA market.

Ksenia Kulikova