Beneficial Asset: Why do Russian banks offer Bitcoin to the clients?
Comment of eCoinomic.net CEO Aleksei Smolianov for Forbes.
The largest Russian banks are planning to test crypto-currency instruments on their wealthy clients, writes Russian magazine Kommersant. The experiment will be held with the participation of the AddCapital fund and the National Settlement Depository with the support of Group IB and AltHaus consulting company on the regulatory platform of the Central Bank.
It is assumed that Sberbank and Alfa-Bank will offer their clients, whose assets are more than $ 500,000, algorithmic solutions for portfolios, with the possibility of investing in six of the most popular crypto-currencies, including Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash and Ethereum.
The report says that the reason for such an experiment was the interest of large private customers to digital assets. So far, they have not been legalized in Russia, but they are not banned either. However, banks expect to offer their clients transparent, proven solutions by the time when laws that legalize the currency are passed.
It is not yet clear who will be interested in this proposal, in addition to the top managers of these same banks, said commercial director of the consulting company AIC Denis Shershnev. “In this case, large amounts of money are offered to invest in digital currencies on the Central Bank of Russia. It seems to me that the meaning of such investments is doubtful” he says.
In 2017, there was a real stir in the global information field: solutions related to the technology of blockade, such as crypto-currencies and cryptotenes, derivatives based on crypto-currencies (traded on the CBOE and CME exchanges) became a kind of “discovery” for the market year back and caused the widest in scope of excitement, despite the fact that the technology itself for many years. The cost of crypto currency bitcoin in 2017 reached $ 20,000, as very many (including very well-known) investment consultants predicted a great future for the “crypt”.
The attention of a large number of private investors was seriously attracted by the opportunity to invest in profitable assets (it is not surprising that such a profitability in such a short period of time is not provided by any instrument on the market).
“The problem is the lack of guarantees against fraud and the so-called scum and an unclear prospect of legislative regulation of new entities. Needless to say, when making decisions to invest or not to become a key. Most of the serious participants of the capital markets, such as investment banks and brokers, during the whole period of the heyday of the cryptomir were positive about the prospects of the new market, but due to regulatory risks they could not provide a public solution for their clients, “the Adviser to the President of the European Legal Service digital markets Vladimir Annikov.
Sberbank and Alfa-Bank are among the most active participants in the processes for expert development of state initiatives in the innovative sector, which was called “Digital Economy”. Their participation is noticeable practically at all levels, which in many ways ensures the development of a new direction. According to Annikov, with the start of testing its own crypto-currency products (based on the “sandbox of the Central Bank”), a significant breakthrough in the industry can be made at the level of the financial market leaders, not only in Russia, but globally. “The solution proposed by them is actual de jure and in the absence of normative documents adopted by the country’s parliament, which will speed up the economy of the processes until regulation comes into being.”
The expert adds that the brand and reputation are a significant guarantee for investors already on their own. He positively assesses the prospects of the project being launched and notes that for today the solution appears to be one of the first in the world, ahead of competitors in the Western world.
The need for such financial instruments is agreed by the CEO of eCoinomic.net Alexei Smolyanov: “With proper management, the crypto currency is not very volatile. With a small share in the portfolio, crypto assets can give a good gain. In the long term, with a horizon of a year the probability of growth is great, but as for the short-term outlook, the price can be adjusted downwards, which will lead to significant losses.“
