The Central Bank of Russia(CBR) seeks to authorize established stock exchanges to trade digital assets. Experts believe that the regulators are trying to offer investors with an alternative to trade cryptocurrencies in a monitored space.
As per the local media outlet, top brass from Moscow Exchange and SPB Exchange met with the Bank of Russia officials and information system operators on April 26.
The meeting was held to discuss CBR’s planned scheme for trading and distributing digital financial assets(DFA) and using digital rights (UDRs).
Last year, the Russian law “On Digital Financial Assets” was introduced which regulated activities including coin issuance (digital financial assets) and token fundraising (digital rights).
However, trading, mining and cryptocurrency distribution are all unregulated in Russia. The finance ministry’s new law, “On Digital Currency,” seeks to change that.
All the members had mixed thoughts on the proposal. Some suggested that platforms did not have enough time to mature and this can further compromise digital asset platform businesses.
The issues in implementing blockchain technology and existing exchange platforms’ slower functioning was also raised during the meet.
Despite all the reservations, the officials from Moscow Exchange were quite optimistic about the idea and said they were willing to continue discussions.
They noted, “The concept involves the use of existing exchange and settlement infrastructures, this will contribute to the concentration of liquidity, which is confirmed by the world practice of secondary circulation of both fiat and digital assets.”
The idea encapsulates utilizing current exchange and settlement systems.
As per unnamed sources, the exchanges and brokers supported the idea of trading digital assets, which would make them consider financial instruments available to them. Information system operators were, however, doubtful of the plan.
It is interesting to mention that the CBR has already granted Sberbank, the financial service provider, a license to issue and exchange digital financial assets. This decision was taken as sanctions from the Western countries continued to bother Russia’s economy.
