SPB Exchange received the right to issue digital financial assets

For the first time, the list of information system (IS) operators that have the right to issue digital financial assets (DFA) has included a trading platform — SPB Exchange. The launch of secondary trading (one of the main factors for the development of the segment) on the exchange infrastructure is not yet possible, and the Central Bank has not yet entered a single organization into the register of CFA exchange operators. However, the access of a wider range of investors to such assets can revive the market, experts believe.

For the first time, the Central Bank included in the register of information system operators a trading platform – SPB Exchange. As Kommersant was explained at the exchange, a separate technological information platform was created based on a distributed registry (blockchain) for the issuance and circulation of monetary DFAs on it, as well as hybrid digital rights (they include simultaneously monetary DFAs and other digital rights, for example, the possibility of supplying goods ). Negotiations are underway with potential issuers.

“We believe that the growth of trading activity and the development of the digital rights market will be facilitated by their circulation in organized trading within the traditional exchange infrastructure, where there is already liquidity, a wide range of investment instruments, brokers and their clients,” the exchange noted. However, the current legislation does not allow CFA to classical trading. Therefore, the SPB Exchange “actively participates in the discussion and preparation of proposals for changing the current regulation in order to start circulating CFA in organized trading.”

Now there are eight organizations in the register of IP operators, including three banks and one stock exchange. Five of them – Lighthouse, Sberbank, Atomize, Alfa-Bank, Distributed Registry Systems – have already issued CFAs.

According to Kommersant’s estimate, 62 issues worth 19.9 billion rubles were announced in 12 months, of which one issue for 15 billion rubles. carried out a week ago (see “Kommersant” dated June 17).

However, often the placement was carried out by a single investor. The Moscow Exchange also submitted an application for inclusion in the register of IP operators. They declined to comment.

The CFA market participants reacted positively to the emergence of a new player. As Denis Iordanidi, CEO of Lighthouse, notes, “the exchange has rich expertise in working with traditional financial instruments, which will bring the young CFA market closer to the stock market and solve the problem of regulatory arbitrage.” SPB Exchange already has a developed financial infrastructure and it can be used to promote new digital assets for Russian investors, says Roman Nekrasov, co-founder of the ENCRY Foundation.

But the limiting factors are not that the major Russian exchanges did not work with the CFA, experts emphasize. So far, the operators, through which you can buy and sell digital financial markets, cannot ensure a constant secondary sale, since investor interest in the instrument is very low: “it is complex and not entirely clear for buying,” explains Andrey Tugarin, managing partner of GMT Legal. Therefore, in his opinion, the appearance of the Exchange in the SPB segment “can only affect the level of competition.”

Now Russian DFAs have neither interoperability (DFAs issued on one IP can only be traded there), nor liquidity – “without this, it is unlikely that any sane investor will get into an asset that cannot be quickly sold if desired,” Roman Nekrasov believes .

The main barrier to liquidity growth, according to the expert, is the lack of exchange operators.

So the Central Bank has not yet included any organization in this register, although a number of IP operators have submitted applications. “On sites managed by exchange operators, in theory, the secondary circulation of DFAs should take place, and DFAs issued in different information systems should also circulate there,” notes Mr. Nekrasov.

“The appearance of the exchange is an important step, and I would like to see hybrid digital tools (digitized goods combined with monetary obligations) for a wide range of users within the limits established by law,” says Maria Agranovskaya, managing partner of the GRAD Bar Association. But most existing companies don’t cater to a wide range of users, she added.

Atomize noted that secondary trading was tested by the company in November 2022, so it is not correct to speak of their complete absence. In addition, 50,000 investors have already registered on the platform, they added. Placement of CFA issues pegged to Norilsk Nickel shares continues on the floor. The start of secondary trading in CFA for gold, issued on the Alfa-Bank site in mid-June, according to the documentation, is scheduled for early October. In addition, according to Denis Jordanidi, other participants in the digital asset market are able to “balance the young market and prevent duplication of traditional financial instruments, and hence the narrowing of the CFA potential.”

Ksenia Kulikova