Bank of Russia grants first payment in cryptocurrencies
Expobank became the first banking institution to grant money in this way, and it did so through the token waves
Russia’s Expobank made history this week after granting the first cryptocurrency-backed bank loan.
This exchange and payment promise was made through the waves token. According to manager Tanzila Yandieva, this transaction “is a precedent both in the legal area and for the banking community.”
The loan was granted to the entrepreneur Mikhail Uspensky, who stated that in the cryptocurrency market there are already loan options in the area of decentralized finance (DeFi), but that it is difficult to use waves as collateral.
Alexander Zhuravlev, a partner at the EDR law firm who acted as a consultant in the negotiation, stressed that, in order to grant the aforementioned loan, it was necessary to properly qualify the Waves platform tokens, from a legal point of view.
Russia is a country where bitcoin is legalized, however the Digital Financial Assets Law (DFA) prohibited its use as a payment method in the acquisition of goods and services.
Waves are considered by the DFA in the category of “digital assets”, which includes the currencies pegged to the dollar like tether, the ERC-20 tokens of ethereum and other tokens. According to the law, digital assets are “a right to a monetary claim or an instrument to exercise a right over certain securities or shares”, which allows it to be used as a guarantee of payment.
K. Tovar
Source: Agencies
