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- Enter Ethereum: the authorities have found a new way to attract foreign capital to the country
Enter Ethereum: the authorities have found a new way to attract foreign capital to the country
The Central Bank has found a way to attract investments from abroad - the turnover of digital financial assets (CFAs) in open networks, the legal framework for which the regulator will develop by the summer, should help in this. In the future, the CFA can become a key tool to ensure the inflow of foreign capital in the face of sanctions. This conclusion was reached at the Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy (Izvestia studied his review). According to analysts, domestic companies will be able to place such tools not only on our platforms, but also, for example, on the Ethereum network. In the future, such assets may become available for purchase on large crypto exchanges. What is the CFA, who would be interested in this tool and what risks it hides — in the Izvestia article.
How can a Russian business attract foreign capital
The Central Bank has sent a proposal to the government to allow the circulation of digital financial assets (CFAs) and other digital rights in open networks. In March, the head of the regulator, Elvira Nabiullina, said that this measure was important for attracting investments from abroad and conducting cross-border settlements. Izvestia sent a request to the Bank of Russia.
A CFA is a digital form of financial rights: for example, the right to money, debt, or income from a certain asset. They are issued and recorded in a special online system based on blockchain technology (a distributed database where records are almost impossible to change). Thanks to this, companies can attract investor funds faster.
Ordinary people can buy a CFA by registering on a special platform of a digital asset operator (for example, a bank one), complete identification and invest up to 600 thousand rubles per year if they do not have the status of a qualified investor.
If the Central Bank's proposal is implemented, Russian companies will be able to place CFAs not only on domestic platforms, where our users are mainly investors, but also on open networks— such as Ethereum (an international blockchain network for digital assets). This is stated in the "Monitoring of international trends in legal regulation for the development of legislation in the field of the digital economy in Russia" by the Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy.
In the future, such assets may become available for purchase on large crypto exchanges (platforms for trading cryptocurrencies) and in DeFi protocols (financial services on the blockchain without intermediary banks). In fact, Russian businesses will once again have access to international liquidity traded in cryptocurrencies and will be able to raise funds on more favorable terms than domestically, the report notes.
In the future, CFAs can become a key tool for attracting foreign capital to Russia, the authors of the review believe. The Central Bank plans to submit a draft of such amendments in the summer of 2026. Their adoption can accelerate the development of this market and open up opportunities for international investments and settlements in foreign trade. In addition, the use of smart contracts (programs that automatically execute the terms of the transaction) will automate operations and reduce sanctions and regulatory risks for participants.
In three years, the CFA market in Russia has grown from 44 billion rubles in 2023 to 1.5 trillion by the end of 2025, Denis Astafyev, fund manager and founder of the SharesPro fintech platform, recalled. However, this growth is almost entirely driven by domestic demand. About 60% of the issues are debt instruments for a period of up to a month, in fact, an analogue of corporate promissory notes. There is practically no external financing. If a draft law is introduced in the summer of 2026, Russian companies may receive a technical channel to international liquidity for the first time after 2022.
At the same time, the CFA market remains relatively small. According to Valery Tumin, a member of the expert council on the development of the digital economy at the State Duma, its volume is about 2% of the corporate bond market, which is estimated at about 33 trillion rubles.
Banks are actively developing this segment, as asset issuance takes several days and does not require registration, while bond placement can take weeks or months, the expert continued. However, the CFA is still more of an alternative to short—term funding (raising money for a short period of time), rather than a full-fledged replacement for traditional debt securities.
How can investments be attracted
In practice, the mechanism may look like this: a company issues a CFA — in fact, a digital bond — not on a closed Russian platform, but on a public network like Ethereum. There, the token becomes available to participants in the global crypto market — for example, through crypto exchanges or DeFi protocols, explained Denis Astafyev from SharesPro. The smart contract automatically makes payments, which reduces costs and allows you to do without intermediaries.
Similar models are already being used by the financial centers of Hong Kong and the UAE to attract capital from friendly jurisdictions, the expert noted. For Russia, participants from Asia, the Middle East and Latin America can become potential investors. Currently, CFA debt is placed at a premium of 0.4–1.1 percentage points to comparable bonds due to the narrowness of the market. Access to global infrastructure can reduce this premium and make borrowing cheaper for companies, Denis Astafyev believes.
At the same time, a number of technological and legal barriers remain in practice, said Natalia Milchakova, a leading analyst at Freedom Finance Global. It is necessary to solve the issues of technical integration of different digital systems and minimize cybersecurity risks. In her opinion, the introduction of the digital ruble and its use in cross-border settlements could help the development of the international CFA market.
What are the risks of using CFA
Today, Russia already has several channels for attracting foreign money, said Mikhail Gordienko, Professor of the Department of Finance for Sustainable Development at Plekhanov Russian University of Economics. The first is direct investments in the capital of companies, shares and joint ventures. The second is portfolio investments in Russian stocks, OFZ, corporate bonds and fund units. The third is loans, trade finance, and settlements under foreign trade contracts. According to the Central Bank, in the third quarter of 2025, all these forms of investment grew, although the total volume of the country's external obligations decreased. Against this background, the use of CFA as an additional channel looks logical, the expert believes.
There are advantages to such a scheme. The public blockchain allows you to verify the release of assets and transactions with them, reduces dependence on a single administrator and can expand the circle of investors, Mikhail Gordienko noted. Tokenization (digitization of an asset) also lowers the entry threshold and can increase liquidity.
The digital form of the tool also speeds up calculations and reduces costs, said Kirill Pistsov, Head of Product Development at Finam. In addition, such assets are easier to integrate with the infrastructure of the crypto market and potentially place on crypto exchanges or in DeFi protocols.
However, there are still risks. The pricing mechanism in the CFA is still less transparent than in the bond market, Natalia Milchakova from Freedom Finance Global emphasized. In addition, the regulation and protection of investors' rights in case of issuer default still need to be finalized.
The market faced its first defaults in 2025. The largest company is Forte Home GmbH, which has not paid about 500 million rubles to investors. According to Valery Tumin from the expert council at the State Duma, the problematic issuers did not have credit ratings and did not disclose their financial statements.
In addition, it is still unclear how foreign investors will be able to withdraw profits and what the legal status of such assets in other countries will be, Denis Astafyev from SharesPro added.
How will the spread of CFA affect the economy
CFAs can become part of a new financial infrastructure where digital tools are gradually integrated with the classical capital market, Kirill Pistsov from Finam believes. This will expand the possibilities of raising funds for businesses and speed up calculations. According to the expert, for private investors, the effect will be rather indirect — through the emergence of new tools and the gradual convergence of traditional financial products with digital assets.
If key technological and legal issues are resolved in the next one or two years, the CFA market may grow to 12-13 trillion rubles by 2030, predicts Natalia Milchakova from Freedom Finance Global. This is almost 20 times the level of 2025.
In the meantime, CFAs are mainly used by businesses, Denis Astafyev noted. But, according to him, if the tool works as a channel for attracting foreign capital, it can support companies' investments and indirectly affect employment and the consumer market.
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