The permit is granted in accordance with Russian law on digital financial assets, which went into effect early last year.

The Bank of Russia announced on Thursday that Atomyze Russia, a fintech startup co-owned by Global Palladium Fund, a metals distributor founded by Russia’s mining giant Nornickel, had obtained a license from the Russian central bank to operate an information system and a digital financial assets exchange.

According to the statement, “the regulator acknowledged the rules of the company’s information system and the technical execution of the platform as compatible with the law.”

The permit is granted in accordance with Russian law on digital financial assets, which went into effect early last year.

Atomyze enables the exchange of digital tokens based on smart contracts, which are monetary claims tied to Nornickel’s metals or products.

In 2019, an international group of investors, including the Swiss-registered Global Palladium Fund and Interros, the investment vehicle of Russian entrepreneur Vladimir Potanin, helped to establish the ecosystem of tokenization trading platforms. Newity, a Russian firm, created the platform on the Hyperledger Fabric solution, which is powered by IBM.

“The development of digital projects is a priority for Interros because the digital economy opens up new opportunities for entering global markets, increases the competitiveness of the entire Russian economy, and allows more people to participate in economic processes,” Interros President Vladimir Potanin said in a statement.

According to Atomyze Russia CEO Ekaterina Frolovicheva, two essential products for individuals and legal entities will be introduced initially. Individuals will be able to manage their wealth in this way, and legal entities, which are the primary users of palladium group metals, will be able to quickly manage the amounts of metal that were not used in manufacturing for whatever reason.

“One of the benefits of tokenization is that it simplifies access to sales markets and attracts liquidity.” “I am confident that our platform will act as a powerful catalyst for the development of not only the ecosystem’s participating enterprises, but will ultimately contribute to the emergence of a digital product vertical in the capital markets of the entire country,” Frolovicheva said.

The company intends to launch instruments not only for additional metals, but also to promote collaboration with other industries, in 2022-2023.

Atomyze’s US and Swiss organizations have yet to be approved by relevant watchdogs and publicly launched.