Said Gutseriev will wash cryptocurrencies in Minsk

Paritetbank has become another asset of Said Gutseriev in Belarus. Earlier, he and Viktor Prokopenei invested in the first cryptocurrency exchange Currency.com in the CIS.
25.05.2020
Kompania
Origin source
Why did the younger Gutseriev need a not-so-successful Belarusian bank and how is this connected with cryptocurrencies.

"Silicon Valley of Eastern Europe"

This is the name of the Republic of Belarus by American journalists of The Wall Street Journal after the signing of Decree No. 8 “On the Development of the Digital Economy” by Alexander Lukashenko. Belarus became the first country in the region to legalize everything connected with the blockchain, as well as the first state in the world to legalize smart contacts. In 2018, about 200 companies were registered in the High-Tech Park, a special tax and legal regime that provides preferences to IT companies: over the previous 13 years of the regime’s operation, there were 120 companies. It was said that Mikhail Gutseriev explained the importance of cryptocurrency industry regulation to Alexander Lukashenko who, after signing the decree, appeared in the form of a reformer.

Father Said Gutseriev, owner of the Safmar group Mikhail Gutseriev, while still president of the Russian-Belarusian joint venture Slavneft, was able to establish friendly relations with the president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko. The “rigorous trust” on the part of Lukashenko helped the Russian businessman to occupy a special position in Belarus. In particular, the Slavkali company controlled by Gutseriev Sr. plans to complete the Nezhinsky mining and processing plant, which will become the largest in the country, by 2023. In addition, Gutseriev repeatedly “rescued” Lukashenko: during the dispute between the official Minsk and Russia over energy prices, it was Gutseriev’s companies that supplied oil to Belarusian refineries to prevent their downtime.

The launch of the project by Said Gutseriev and his partner Viktor Prokopeni Currency.com, the first crypto-exchange in the CIS, confirmed the seriousness of Minsk’s stake in the IT sector. Total investments amounted to about $ 10 million.

However, as stated by Co, Vice President of the Russian Association of Crypto Industry and Blockchain (RACIB) Valery Petrov, the exchange itself provides a wider range of services than the classic crypto exchange “in the understanding, as we usually see it, when we talk about leaders such as Binance. "

Currency.com is the world's first fully state-regulated tokenized asset exchange. This means that, in addition to traditional cryptocurrencies, it is possible to sell and buy tokenized assets on raw materials, stocks, indices, which are linked to the basic market value of traditional financial assets, on the stock exchange.

“Over the past year, the exchange has shown good results - the monthly turnover amounted to several hundred million dollars, in March alone, more than 25 thousand new customers registered there. This suggests that this service is in demand in Belarus, ”said Petrov.

Satisfied with the results and investors. According to a source familiar with the operating results of Currency.com, “Dynamics fully suits investors and management. The goals set in the first months of work are achieved and exceeded. Recent months have provided a large influx of new customers: volatility in the financial markets always increases interest in the topic of investments. ”
According to the information of the exchange itself, according to the results of 2019, its creators expected to achieve a turnover of $ 1 billion. As of June 2019, Currency.com was able to achieve a turnover of $ 205 million, while the share of Russian users of the crypto-exchange was 27.3%. Currency.com currently offers more than 1,500 assets, among which are the world's first tokenized government bonds: Belarusian currency government bonds are listed.

Is everything so rosy?

However, not all experts consider the Belarusian cryptocurrency exchange a safe place for investment. According to Elina Sidorenko, head of the working group on cryptocurrency turnover risk assessments of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, “Belarus has put cryptocurrencies as a way to attract investment in the country through crowdinvesting; nonetheless, the initiators of the development of digital financial platforms have not worked out enough cryptocurrency risks, and first of all, the issue of compliance with the requirements on counteracting the legalization of criminal proceeds. ” In addition, it becomes clear from open sources, Sidorenko believes that Belarus was unable to offer a systematic approach to tracking cryptocurrency transactions and blocking suspicious transactions.

“It turns out that, on the one hand, through regulating the status of a participant in a cryptocurrency turnover, part of financial transactions is withdrawn from the gray segment to white, and on the other, it is impossible to objectively assess the volume of cryptocurrency receipts today: publications on the topic are purely speculative and the authorities they don’t report on how serious the risks are, ”said Sidorenko.

According to Valery Petrov, it was precisely to solve such problems that the Gutseriev empire acquired Paritetbank - this could be a significant impetus to the development of Currency.com: “Both the exchange and the bank have common customers; accordingly, the bank may well act as a marketing agent for the crypto-exchange, since this does not contradict the law, on the one hand. On the other hand, if necessary, it can become a source of necessary liquidity from the point of view of interaction between two legal entities: LLC Carrence Com Bel and the bank itself. In this case, the exchange will receive the financial support it needs so much, and most importantly, it will increase trust from potential customers, as the bank can act as a guarantor for a number of operations conducted by the exchange. ”

The synergy between the exchange and the bank in the framework of the interaction of two legal entities operating in the financial market should have a significant effect in terms of expanding the presence market.

“The Belarusian financial authorities, unlike the Russian ones, apparently understand better that cryptocurrencies cannot be regulated in the same way as standard financial assets and fiat currencies are regulated,” Petrov said.

Is the game worth the candle?

On the one hand, at the moment, Russians are free to trade on Currency.com, since there are no legislative obstacles for this. Nevertheless, according to Valery Petrov, difficulties may arise in the near future if the law on digital financial assets is adopted “in the wording that we saw at the end of last year.” If the Central Bank insists on its own - and the regulation that is spelled out in the new legislative act is adopted, then this will further reduce the ability of Russian citizens to work in cryptocurrency markets.

Elina Sidorenko is currently evaluating the accessibility of Belarusian cryptocurrency markets for Russian investors as “ghostly”. First of all, because the Russians will be forced, as taxpayers, to obey the rules that are established in Russia.

According to the recommendations of Rosfinmonitoring of 2016, cryptocurrency transactions are considered doubtful. This makes access to the cryptocurrency market of Belarus of large Russian companies, especially credit organizations, practically impossible.

In addition, the High-Tech Park today cannot provide a high-quality withdrawal of crypto assets convertible into fiat into the national accounts of participants in the transaction.

Therefore, at the moment, very attractive investment conditions turn into a lot of pitfalls, which become apparent only at the time of release. The possibility of transnational projects is hampered by the lack of a clear agreement with Russia and other EAEU countries. If they are achieved (but for now we have not even come close to this), then, according to Elina Sidorenko, the Belarusian cryptocurrency harbor will be more interesting for the Russians.

Meanwhile, the Belarusians themselves are well aware that there is a risk of losing investors from Russia, and therefore today the exchange is oriented almost to the whole world in accordance with the requirements of the laws of specific countries. According to Petrov, the experience of Сurrency.com showed that the legalization of the cryptocurrency market, supported by the state, can increase the confidence of participants and attract significant investments in the country, and, from the point of view of the RAKIB, Russia could learn from Belarus.

The regulatory framework for the turnover of crypto assets in Russia can not be created for two years. As Anatoly Aksakov, Chairman of the State Duma Financial Market Committee, answered a question from a Ko correspondent, the law on digital financial assets was finally agreed and should be adopted in May in the second reading.

According to the deputy, this version of the bill provides for the issuance of tokens provided with goods, such as raw materials. As a result, within the framework of the information system, or blockchain, formed on the basis of this law, it will be possible to implement stablecoins.

The RSPP, as well as business representatives, for example, Norilsk Nickel, which has already announced the launch of a digital platform for trading tokenized assets, advocates for the speedy adoption of the law.

Commenting on the situation of crypto-mills in a neighboring country, Aksakov said: “As far as I know, this advertised idea has not received much widespread development in Belarus, although some work is being done.”

However, the persistent interest shown by Russian investors in realizing this idea may indicate high rates.

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