Expobank, a large financial institution in Russia, has reportedly issued the first tokenized diamond offering in the country. According to local media, Expobank used the Multichain blockchain platform to issue these tokens, with each one of them having the value of 1/5,000 of a diamond, democratizing access to these investments in gemstones for small investors.
Expobank Pioneers Diamond Tokenization in Russia
Expobank, a financial institution with more than 50 offices in Russia, has entered the market of gemstone tokenization. The bank recently issued the first tokenized diamonds in the Russian market using the Multichain blockchain, intending to democratize the gemstone market and allow small investors to enter these investment opportunities.
The tokens were issued for a three-carat diamond with a value of 9 million rubles ($97,500). Expobank issued 5,000 tokens for the diamonds, each with a price of 1/5000 of the total, leaving each token costing less than $20.
The tokens, which were only issued to authorized investors, have their repayment date on November 2026, when the cash-out price of the token will be calculated using a dedicated calculator on a website that rates diamonds according to their size, purity, shape, and fluorescence, among other characteristics.
However, if this option is not available, a diamond price index will be used to calculate the price.
National and International Tokenizations Advance
Russia has allowed for the issuance of tokens, called Digital Financial Assets (DFAs), since 2021, when it regulated the issuance of tokens representing real-world and other traditional assets. However, most of these opportunities have only surfaced recently.
Kommersant, a local news outlet, reported that there has been movement in the DFA field, with 140 tokenized products being announced, reaching a market of $450 million so far. However, not all of these tokens have been issued.
Other tokenization options are also being explored by financial institutions in Russia. In October, the Moscow Exchange, the largest exchange in Russia, announced that it was planning to issue housing and real estate digital assets to allow companies to receive financing from investors in addition to the traditional monetary flows from banks.
HSBC, one of the largest financial entities, recently launched a tokenization platform for gold bullion, targeting a market of more than $500 billion in the Greater London area. The platform will allow investors to keep track of their gold holdings and negotiate them using HSBC’s platform.
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