Moscow Exchange proposes to legalize the issuance of receipts for digital financial assets. The trading platform says this would allow custodians to offer customers who are not ready for a distributed ledger to essentially handle securities MOEX also plans to become a licensed crypto exchange operator.
Russia’s largest stock exchange prepares for digital asset market entry
Russia’s leading stock and derivatives exchange has drafted a new law allowing depository institutions to issue receipts for digital financial assets (DFAs). Under current Russian law, in the absence of a more precise definition, “DFAs” in the broadest sense encompasses cryptocurrencies, but primarily refers to digital coins and tokens with issuers.
Under such arrangements, DFA receipts can be traded as securities, explained Sergey Shvetsov, who heads the Supervisory Board of the Moscow Exchange (MOEX). In the latest edition of the International Banking Forum, this official stressed that the exchange “will naturally enter this market” and stated.
We have a project in place to issue receipts for digital assets, which will be distributed as securities.
MOEX has already submitted the respective bills to the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) and will also coordinate this initiative with the Ministry of Finance. Shvetsov added that the bills will provide an opportunity for those who are not ready to deal with distributed ledgers and fear custodial risks to be able to transfer these risks and issue securities.
“For DFA to develop, we would like to propose that the market itself make the choice of blockchain accounting or depository accounting,” he further elaborated, and that the Moscow Exchange would also like to obtain a license from the CBR to operate as a digital asset exchange He reminded the audience that in August, MOEX announced its intention to launch a DFA-based product by the end of the year.
“If such a law is adopted, Russian depository institutions will be able to accumulate DFA in blockchain accounts and give customers receipts for it. As soon as the customer needs the underlying asset, he would cancel the receipt and receive the digital asset in the blockchain account,” Shvetsov was quoted as saying by Prime business news agency.
While there is growing support in Moscow for allowing the use of digital assets such as cryptocurrencies for international payments amid sanctions, it remains unclear whether regulators will allow their free circulation in the country. Either way, Russia needs to build its own crypto infrastructure, according to the head of the parliamentary Financial Markets Committee, Anatoly Aksakov, who recently said the Moscow and St. Petersburg stock exchanges are ready to provide it.
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