Atomyze Launches First Palladium-backed Digital Token in Russia

Atomyze, a digital assets platform for tokenizing commodities, has launched the first digital token backed by palladium in Russia.

The digital asset will be issued by GPEF Investments and tokenized by palladium provided by Russian miner Nornickel. According to Atomyze, some of the first investors on the platform include Russian bank Rosbank, and broker Vector X.

“The emergence of Russia’s first industrial token marks the entry of the Russian economy into a new period – the era of tokenization,” said businessman Vladimir Potanin.

“Unlike unsecured cryptocurrency, where blockchain technology is used to maximize user anonymity, industrial and other tokens are secured by physical assets, and the use of blockchain technology makes transactions with them secure.”

Atomyze became the first Russian firm to receive approval to exchange digital assets in Feb. Digital financial assets (DFAs) legislation only came into force in Russia at the beginning of last year. 

Since then, Atomyze has only been the third solution vetted by Russia’s central bank, which has long-held skeptical beliefs about cryptocurrencies. The other two, Sberbank and startup Lighthouse, also tokenized factored invoices during the past month.

Crypto payment ban

Russian President Vladimir Putin recently signed a bill officially banning the use of cryptocurrencies throughout the country. This means that digital assets cannot be used as payment “for transferred goods, performed works, rendered services.”

The law gives exchange operators the power not to process transactions that use digital financial assets (DFAs) for payments. DFAs include all digital assets, including cryptocurrency. The law also bans payments with utilitarian digital rights (UDR).

Last month, lawmakers approved a draft law potentially removing value-added tax from the issuance of digital assets and cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrency transactions are currently taxed at around 20%.

However, the new law would crop that figure to 13% for Russian companies and 15% for foreign enterprises.