Russian blockchain firm Atomyze, financial tech company Lighthouse placed on SDN List
MOSCOW. March 25 (Interfax) - The United States has imposed blocking sanctions against Atomyze, a Russian blockchain platform.
"Digital financial assets are a Russian phenomenon. Atomyze LLC operates in Russia, in full compliance with Russian laws. The restrictions introduced have no impact on the platform's operation. Atomyze continues its stable work in the interests of all its clients," the company's press service said.
The financial technology company Lighthouse has also been added to the SDN List, the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said.
The operator of the Masterchain platform Distributed Ledger Systems LLC and that of the exchange service Netexchange (Tsentr Obrabotki Elektronnykh Platezhei, a.k.a. Center for Processing Electronic Payments LLC) have also been sanctioned.
"Many of the individuals and entities designated today facilitated transactions or offered other services that helped OFAC-designated entities evade sanctions," OFAC said.
Atomyze, a platform for creating and circulating digital financial assets, has Vladimir Potanin's Interros among its investors. In February 2022, it became the first platform to be registered as an operator of an information system issuing digital financial assets.
Jointly with Transmachholding, the financial technology company Lighthouse works to develop a digital finance ecosystem. It was included in the register as an information system operator in March 2022.
Masterchain is an operator of a blockchain platform being used to create a number of solutions for business, including digital financial assets, digital banking guarantees and digital mortgage. Additionally, it provides an instrument for interaction between financial market players on the basis of the distributed ledger technology.
Banks processed test transactions using the platform in October 2017. The founders of the company included VTB, Gazprombank, Promsvyazbank, National Payment Card System, Moscow Exchange and FinTech Association. Masterchain was included in the appropriate register as an information system operator in March 2023.
Apart from Masterchain, Atomyze and Lighthouse, the register maintained by the Russian Central Bank includes platforms created by Sberbank, Alfa Bank, Promsvyazbank, Evrofinance Mosnarbank, NRD, SPB Exchange and Blockchain Hub (an MTS subsidiary).
Nextchange is a service that offers exchange, entry and withdrawal of electronic currencies of various payment systems based in Russia and the CIS. Timur Bukanov, who owns the service, has also been added to the SDN list.