Alpha Bank, a leading Russian bank, has established its own platform for digital financial assets. The launch was made possible this week when Russia’s monetary authority added Alfa Bank to its register of digital asset issuers.
Private Alfa Bank launches digital asset platform with central bank’s permission
Russia’s Alfa Bank has launched A-Token, a platform that enables the issuance of digital financial assets (DFA), business news portal RBC reported, citing the company’s innovation director, Denis Dodon. The bank is able to do so because the Bank of Russia announcedits registration as a DFA issuer on Thursday.
The approval makes Alfa Bank, the country’s largest private bank, the second largest banking institution capable of minting digital coins, after state-owned Sberbank, the largest bank in the Russian Federation by assets.
The list of licensees also includes Lighthouse, a fintech company that partners with VTB Bank, and Atomize, a tokenization service that partners with Rosbank. These have already issued a variety of digital assets. Sberbank is also preparing to launch a defi platform.
Alfa Bank plans to issue its own DFA on the new platform, with a pilot release scheduled for the end of February. The bank also hopes to offer the infrastructure to other market participants. The bank hopes to work with both investment firms and retail investors, and A-Token will be accessible through a mobile app.
Dodon further explained that the platform will issue two types of financial instruments, DFA, which are equivalent to traditional financial instruments in the form of monetary claims, and entirely new investment products, including tokenized physical assets such as precious metals.
Alpha Bank announced its intention to build a DFA infrastructure in September 2022. Its issuance in Russia is regulated by the “On Digital Financial Assets” law, which came into effect in January 2021. While this law primarily covers digital assets with issuers, Russian authorities are also developing a legal framework for decentralized cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.
Crypto payments are being considered by Moscow as a way to circumvent Western financial regulations imposed by the war in Ukraine, and digital rubles are being created. Both Alpha Bank and Sberbank have been sanctionedby the U.S. Treasury Department, and access to Russian crypto assets has been targetedby the European Union.
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