Currency.com

2025: Appointment as CEO of Konstantin Anisimov

After the fintech group VP Capital Ltd, which manages the global trading platform Capital.com, sold the Currency.com to a group of investors represented by CXNEST Ltd in April 2025, the latter announced the appointment of Konstantin Anisimov as the new CEO of the cryptocurrency platform. Konstantin Anisimov has more than 20 years of leadership experience in the field of technology and finance, with a history of successful business development, institutional partnerships and product development in global fintech and crypto markets. Read more here

2022: Termination of service to 0.5 million Russians and DDoS attack

In April 2022, the cryptocurrency exchange Currency was subjected to a large-scale DDoS attack after it announced the termination of services to Russians. The owner of the company, Belarusian Viktor Prokopenya, said that Russian hackers were behind the incident. The exchange has 500,000 Russian customers.

2021: Said Gutseriev sold stakes in Currency.com and two other crypto exchanges and earned $150 million

On August 18, 2021, it became known about the withdrawal Said Gutserieva from the capital of three cryptocurrency exchanges: Currency.com, Capital.com and Zubr.io. They write about this "" Sheets with reference to the extracts of companies and the representative of the businessman himself, who is a member of the board of directors "" and Safmar Financial Investments"." M.Video More. here

2019: Said Gutseriev and Viktor Prokopenya launch crypto exchange Currency.com

The Currency.com crypto exchange was created and launched on January 15, 2019 by Belarusian entrepreneur Viktor Prokopenya and the son of Russian billionaire Mikhail Gutseriev Said Gutseriev. Their investment companies VP Capital and Larnabel Ventures have invested in a project immodely called by them "the world's first regulated fully functional platform for tokenized exchange assets," about $10 million. The exchange, its founders say, will be of interest primarily to those who are already holders of cryptocurrencies, since it provides an opportunity to invest them, and not just sell them for fiat money.

The launch of the Prokopeni-Gutseriev crypto exchange was another reason for the Western and Russian media to write about the IT championship of Belarus. The exchange, like the entire Digital Belarus project, seems impeccable from the point of view of PR and marketing. But questions remain about business mechanisms for Currency.com.

According to Nikolai Markovnik, manager of VP Capital, the function of the holder of a financial instrument acting as a token security is assigned to the Capital.com company, which has a British FCA license (broker, investment company). The same company guarantees the client that the token price corresponds to the collateral price, be it shares, precious metals or raw materials.

The provision is purchased in the required amount for each specific application of the platform user, explains Mr. Prokopenya. The corresponding funds in the Capital.com "are formed in accordance with the legislation of the European Union." If financial instruments that are acquired to secure obligations under tokens involve any payments (coupon income, dividends, etc.), the income received by the operator as the owner of the asset is transferred to the token holder.

At first glance, the economic essence of the instruments proposed for placement on the new exchange (tokens for real assets) is close to traditional ETFs - traded exchange-traded investment funds, which was confirmed by Mr. Markovnik. However, direct comparisons are not entirely correct, since in this case the client will have to take into account a number of risks that are not typical for traditional ETFs, said Oleg Yankelev, senior partner of FinEx Capital Management.

As part of a number of blockchain projects, their creators have already tried to tokenize real assets - the dollar, gold, shares. None of the attempts succeeded. Effective and reliable mechanisms for providing tokens with basic assets have not been created, says Mr. Yankelev.

- There is no guarantee that each token will actually be provided with one or another declared asset. At the heart of the ETF's infrastructure are both the castodian and the administrator, the largest of whom - Bank of New York Mellon, HSBC, State Street and Northern Trust - hold tens of trillions of dollars in assets. "They are responsible to investors to ensure that every security issued is actually backed by stated assets. This business is built on trust. If any of the giants make a mistake at least once, and even more so allow fraud, their business will be doomed. The guarantee of the purity of the transaction for the investor is the reputation, experience and independence of the custodian, "says Oleg[1].

According to him, in the case of the new Belarusian structure, there is no such guarantee: the administrator is a new company (the Capital.com license entered into force on October 26, 2018), which is not known on the market, does not have the necessary infrastructure and independence from the trading platform.

Investors of the Belarusian platform will have to take into account specific risks associated with the irrevocable loss of digital assets (loss of a private key), with technological problems (failures and breakdowns leading to violations of the course of transactions), cyber risks (hacking and compromise of wallets or exchange infrastructure), adds partner of the Add.Capital fund Alexey Prokofiev.

The issuer of the token is the Currency.com platform, to which the end consumer of the financial service has the right to demand a repurchase of the token at any time.

Artem Tolkachev, head of the Sputnik DLT blockchain integrator, resembles a scheme for the functioning of the forex market: a client does not trade in real dollars and francs, but gives orders to a forex dealer to whom the client has claims.

"Ideally, each user should be able to take tokens from the operator, dispose of them at their discretion without an intermediary. However, this is not allowed by legislation that does not recognize a token as a security. So far, it is only a security ID, its digital incarnation, "he says.

Viktor Prokopenya retorts: it will Currency.com take less than a second to fulfill a client request, since the Capital.com and Currency.com servers are located in the same data center (LD4) Equinix , which also houses the servers of many other exchanges.

In an ideal situation, tokens can indeed be more liquid than traditional securities, confirms Mister Tolkachyov.

"OTC transactions with securities are usually calculated according to the T + 1 or T + 2 scheme, that is, delivery takes place one to two days after the completion of the transaction. In the case of tokenized assets, everything should be much faster due to automation, smart contract logic, etc. Speed attracts investors, their circle expands, "he says.

Whether Currency.com with the inherent specifics of the organization will be in demand is too early to judge, experts interviewed by Kommersant say. Mister Tolkachyov notes that the very emergence of the legal possibility of converting cryptocurrency into a fiat with a bank account and an understandable tax regime is "a good sign for the industry."

Be that as it may, for Mikhail Gutseriev, who invested a lot in Belarus (modernized the Mozyr refinery, builds the Nezhinsky GOK), this country has also become a field for games with blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

Gutseriev had carte blanche for an experiment with first-person Currency.com of the state. That is, practically did not risk anything from a regulatory point of view. As for financial risks, for a businessman his level of $10 million is not a very significant amount, "believes a Kommersant source close to one of the HTP residents.

According to him, Viktor Prokopenya was "appointed" the project realizer as "Gutseriev's man" and "copes well with his role."

According to one of the investors who considered residency in the HTP, new opportunities have opened up in Belarus to diversify the business of the Gutseriev family.

"They are actively testing a cryptocurrency niche in which they probably will not have competitors in the republic. In an interview, Mikhail Gutseriev mentioned that he hopes to open three or five high-tech companies in Belarus. I think this will not be limited to this. The Gutserievs are specialists in the construction of business empires, "the source told Kommersant.

See also

• Information technologies in Belarus

Notes