Russia's Apex Bank Grants DFA License to Atomyze, the Nation's First

The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) has granted the Digital Financial Assets (DFA) services license to Atomyze LLC, the first startup in the country to become an asset manager.

In what appears to be a dramatic shift from its antagonism of digital currency services as seen of late, the CBR said with the license, Atomyze will be able to provide services bordering on key areas of crypto operations, including operating a brokerage outfit.

“The Bank of Russia has included the first organization, Atomize LLC, in the register of information system operators that issue digital financial assets (DFA). The regulator recognized the rules of the company's information system and the technical implementation of the platform as compliant with the law,” the announcement reads with the CBR adding that;

“The harmonization of rules and entry into the registry allows the company to provide customers with the opportunity to issue DFA on its platform and receive new types of products in tokenized form. The organization will also be able to independently carry out exchange operations within its platform since the rules of the information system contain the provisions of the DFA exchange rules.”

The Russian apex bank is currently exploring avenues to ban digital currencies like the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) did last year. While the plans by the Russian watchdog are still in their infancy, it has met with severe opposition on all grounds, forcing the bank to propose limiting the ban to Bitcoin mining operations only. 

While it cannot be ascertained whether the license approval for Atomyze is its way of allaying the fears of the populace on the proposed crypto ban, the move is notably poised to calm many nerves down.

With China known to be off the chart in terms of crypto support, global crypto stakeholders will be wishing Russia can follow nations like India which currently has chosen to tax crypto gains, a move that can help in legalizing the nascent asset class in the country.