First Crypto-Backed Loan Issued by Russian Bank
According to the Russian newspaper Kommersant, Russian bank Expobank has granted businessman Mikhail Uspensky the first loan with a cryptocurrency backed collateral.
This first appeared on Invezz, and it is one of the first crypto-backed loans worldwide. Russian banks have made “Russia’s first crypto-backed loans,” according to Russian news agencies, and have granted a $1.5 million crypto-secured loan to entrepreneur and businessman Uspensky.
Still, Kommersant said the bank had consulted several lawyers and cryptocurrency experts on the deal, which has led to the token being defined as “other property” and placed in an escrow account to secure the loan. The agreement is “unprecedented in our legal community,” said Alexei Kuznetsov, chief executive of Expobank Russia, the country’s largest bank.
The circulation of cryptocurrencies in Russia is still associated with a lot of legal uncertainty, “he reportedly said. Vegas Lex’s lawyer, Kirill Nikitin, pointed out that Russia’s proliferation of crypto-resources could link to legal vulnerabilities.
Russia passed its first law on cryptocurrencies this summer. The digital currency industry is considering rules that would prohibit Russians from using cryptocurrencies as a means of payment when their rules take effect next year. Companies are also not allowed to advertise crypto payment options, but Expobank believes the loan, defined as property, would be permitted under the new guidelines.
First, banks have specialized in lending and developed new methods to assess borrowers and collect for bad loans. Kommersant describes trust assets as “a means of meeting creditors” obligations by transferring ownership in the form of deposited digital assets. Trust assets in Russia gradually remain a tool for lenders to meet lenders “burdens by shifting property to an electronic resource kept in a safe place, such as a bank account or security account.
