The Russian government-backed tokenization platform Atomyze has reportedly completed the issuance of its first digital asset, pegged against palladium, in a partnership with the local bank Rosbank.

Specifically, Rosbank reportedly issued an official announcement on July 19th, regarding its newly acquired status of the first partner of the Russian blockchain entity Atomyze, assuming the role as an investor in Russia’s first digital asset deal with palladium.

Per the announcement, the freshly rolled out virtual asset is the first digital financial asset (DFA) where Atomyze will facilitate the issuance process. The platform managed to secure registration from the Bank of Russia in February this year, turning into the country’s first legal digital asset manager.

Both Atomyze and Rosbank reportedly receive the backing from Interros, a Russia-based conglomerate and investment firm co-established by sanctioned oligarch Vladimir Potanin. 

The current Head of the Russian nickel and palladium mining and smelting firm Nornickel originally revealed tokenization plans of palladium in 2019, via a Switzerland-based palladium fund.

As detailed in the announcement from Interros, Atomyze will reportedly operate as a primary player of Interros’ digital ecosystem including Potanin’s freshly secured private bank Tinkoff, software engineering entity Reksoft and Rosbank.

“This is a truly significant event. Russian businesses and individuals have the opportunity to invest in this metal. The event also marks Russia’s economy entering a new period, the “era of tokenization” Potanin additionally remarked. 

Potanin further shared a keen attitude towards the matter that Atomize-issued digital financial assets such as the palladium token will sooner or later be a replacement for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC). 

“Unlike cryptocurrencies […] industrial and other tokens are backed by physical assets, and the use of blockchain technology makes their transactions reliable, convenient and transparent. The token will defeat the cryptocurrency, pushing it to the sidelines of the digital economy.”