Atomyze Tokentrust AG

Atomyze (Tokentrust AG) is the developer of the platform of the same name for the tokenization of industrial assets (palladium, cobalt, copper and other valuable metals).

History

2024

Interros Capital Vladimir Potanin transferred 33% of Atomais CFA management platform to TKS Holding

Vladimir Potanin's Interros Capital transferred 33% of the Atomais digital financial asset management platform (CFA) to TKS Holding. This deal became known on July 8, 2024.

According to Interfax, citing data from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (Unified State Register of Legal Entities), T-Projects LLC (formerly Tinkoff Projects) received 33% in the capital of Atomais, as a result of which the share of Interros Capital decreased to 2%, the owner of the remaining 65% shares is still Cyprus Tokentrust Holding Limited.

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The change of Atomais owner occurred after the United States imposed sanctions against Russian fintech companies and their owners, including Atomais and Tokentrust Holding Limited were included in the sanctions lists.

The agency recalls that MKPAO TKS Holding, the parent company of T-Bank (formerly Tinkoff Bank), was created as part of the re-registration of TCS Group from Cyprus to Russia. The main shareholder of the holding is Interros Potanina.

As of July 2024, more than 200 issues with a total volume of more than 23 billion rubles took place on the Atomais platform. About 72 thousand investors were registered on the platform and a full cycle of transactions with CFA was implemented, including the issue, initial acquisition, circulation, sale in the secondary market and repayment of digital financial assets.

The representative of Atomais told Vedomosti that the company is a technological startup that invests a lot of funds not only in blockchain development, but also in infrastructure development, including for integration with other liquidity providers - banks and exchanges. At the same time, the industry is only being formed, and Atomais, as a pioneer, takes on a large load, including financial, in order to evaluate various product and technological hypotheses, to form market practice, he summed up.^[1]

Being sanctioned by the United States

At the end of March 2024, the United States imposed maximum sanctions against the Russian platforms for digital financial assets Atomais and Lighthouse. These companies are listed on the SDN List (Specially Designated Nationals List), whose members are blocked from all assets located in the United States. In addition, being included in this black list implies a ban on American persons from any interaction with sanctioned persons, including receiving funds, goods or services from such persons and providing them or in their interests.

Many of the individuals and entities on the list today facilitated transactions or offered other services that helped OFAC-listed entities avoid sanctions, the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said in a statement.

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Atomaiz, commenting on falling under American sanctions, noted that the company operates in Russia in full compliance with local legislation. The introduced restrictions do not affect the operation of the platform in any way, added to Atomayze.

According to Pavel Fedorov, General Director and Founder of the Fractio Tokenization Platform, for Russian Information System Operators (OIS) that fall under US sanctions, which place digital financial assets, "legal risks may be realized that will limit any interaction of the management and owners of such organizations with any organizations or countries and the right to acquire assets there or open deposits in banks." Fedorov also allowed the introduction of bans on the supply and use of technologies and equipment. Mikhail Uspensky, a member of the expert council of the working group on cryptocurrencies of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, in turn, noted that most of the CFA operators work on their own blockchains and "local equipment."^[2]

2023

4 out of 5 digital financial asset operators in Russia turned out to be unprofitable

On July 2, 2024, it became known that four out of five digital financial asset operators (CFAs) in Russia completed 2023 with losses. This information is based on an analysis of the financial statements of companies whose main activity is the issue and conduct of transactions with CFA. Read more here.

The largest net loss in 2023 was recorded at Atomais - 428.9 million rubles. The company explained this by the significant costs of issuing CFA, as well as operational and other costs, which in total amounted to 640 million rubles. At the same time, the total income of the site from sales and received interest reached 110.4 million rubles.

Appointment of Alexei Ilyasov as General Director

In mid-November 2023, Alexei Ilyasov headed Atomaiz, one of the largest participants in the Russian digital financial asset market (CFA). In this post, he replaced Ekaterina Frolovicheva, who has been the general director of Atomais since the company was founded. Read more here.

2022

Production of CFA for 7 precious metals

The first digital financial asset (CFA) for 7 precious metals was released on the Atomais platform: gold, silver and platinum group metals - platinum, palladium, rhodium, iridium and ruthenium. This became known in early October 2022.

The composition of the basket is special: for example, rhodium, iridium and ruthenium are not available on the open organized market. All 7 metals are produced by the issuer - OJSC Krastsvetmet. The investor was the Vector X broker.

According to Atomais, this is the first CFA in Russia to have a diversified asset portfolio. It contains a ready-made investment idea: invest in precious metals as an alternative to assets in the foreign exchange and stock markets. And the wide composition of the basket additionally protects the investor in the event of volatility of any of the metals.

The deal opens up a new class of diversified CFAs before us. In fact, we can tokenize entire ones industries industries and attract investments in them through the CFA. Technologies make this process convenient and transparent for both the investor and the issuer. And in terms of security, the CFAs are not inferior to the classical instruments of the stock market, - commented Ekaterina Frolovicheva, General Director of Atomais.

Digital assets are a round of development of the digital economy, their main quality is the ability to quickly, safely and conveniently move values ​ ​ between market participants. In partnership with Atomais and Vector X, we will be able to provide an opportunity to invest in precious metals to a wide range of investors, - said Mikhail Diaghilev, CEO of Krastsvetmet .

The first issuer of digital financial assets on the Atomais platform in Russia was Norilsk Nickel. In addition to palladium output, the company issued CFA on its accounts payable.

Earlier, the Global Palladium Fund of the group launched Europe digital smart contracts exchanges for precious and non-ferrous metals, as well as carbon neural nickel, into circulation on the largest exchanges.

Obtaining a Digital Financial Asset Management License

The Central Bank of the Russian Federation began issuing licenses for the management of digital financial assets (CFA), which the regulator announced on February 3, 2022. The first in the register of information system operators in which the CFA is issued was Atomyze, one of whose investors is Vladimir Potanin's Interros company.

The Central Bank recognized the rules of the Atomyze information system and the technical properties of the platform as complying with the law.

The Central Bank of the Russian Federation began to issue licenses for the management of digital financial assets

The Central Bank noted that the coordination of the rules and entry into the register allow the company to provide customers with the opportunity to issue CFA 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 include the provisions of the exchange rules of the CFA.

For the further development of the CFA, the Central Bank has formed proposals for improving the regulation of such assets and their taxation issues, which will increase the attractiveness and applicability of digital financial instruments. In the near future, these proposals will be submitted for discussion in the form of an advisory report of the regulator.

Vladimir Potanin, on the occasion of Atomyze's registration in the register, wrote in the Interros Club group on Facebook that "thanks to the adoption of the law on the CFA and the competent policy of the Central Bank, Russia has all the prerequisites for securing digital leadership."

I am sure that our platform will serve as a powerful catalyst for the development of not only companies participating in the ecosystem, but, ultimately, will contribute to the formation of a digital product vertical in the capital markets of the whole country, "said Ekaterina Frolovicheva, director of Atomyze Russia.[3]

2021: Attracting investments from Interros

In early June 2021, Interros announced its investment in the Atomyze blockchain platform, which turns metals into digital financial assets (CFA). According to the head of the group, Sergei Batekhin, this system is waiting for a license from the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, and after receiving it, "that business developing abroad will be able to come to Russia."

At the same time, he noted that it is necessary to amend the tax legislation on the CFA.

Unfortunately, this model will not work without the adoption of amendments to the bills on taxation of the CFA. You will have to immediately pay 20% income tax at the time of issue of the CFA. In fact, this is a turnover tax, "Batekhin emphasized.

Interros invested in Atomyze blockchain platform that turns metals into digital assets

As Interros explained, the tokenization of physical assets will allow industrial companies with ambitious environmental goals to create additional value for their products that meet ESG standards. Creating a new value could be another incentive for the digitalization of industrial goods, in addition to simplifying procedures between market participants. Thanks to the peculiarities of blockchain technology, the origin of goods and services at all stages of their production up to disposal will be "transparent," the group noted.

We, as a nickel producer, are interested in our nickel being bought and supplied to those companies, those automotive concerns that want it to meet these standards. So, just a smart contract, or token, allows a batch of nickel supplied to such consumers to record information about where it was mined, to whom it was delivered, how environmental standards were observed, - said Sergey Batekhin.

Interros entered the Atomyze blockchain platform consortium of investors, but the company did not disclose the financial and other terms of the transaction.

As part of the Atomyze platform, token trading takes place on the London and Vienna exchanges. The plans by the beginning of June 2021 include their listing at other leading sites in the world. The Atomyze platform was opened in Swiss jurisdiction.^[4]

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