NSD and Rosselkhozbank intend to tokenize grain stocks

The National Settlement Depository (NSD) and the Russian Agricultural Bank are planning to launch a pilot project by the end of the month to digitalize and tokenize the grain stocks of bidders on the Moscow Exchange.

“This should help minimize the risks of incorrect accounting. In the future, it is planned to sell tokens in the spot market, ”the chairman of the NSD board, Eddie Astanin, told reporters.

“Digitalization in cooperation with the Agricultural Bank minimizes the risks of incorrect grain accounting and simplifies the trading technology. For example, if you want to buy a half-car of grain, this immediately leads to a rise in price – you are forced to buy a car. Tokens, in turn, allow you to trade in separate lots of grain. We hope that we will be able to launch this project before the end of this month. For us, this is a new digital asset, and for the industry, this is a way to get away from physical processes, ”Astanin said on the sidelines of the presentation of the exchange’s development strategy until 2024.

Further, Astanin explained how this system will work: for example, a client put one ton of grain into a warehouse, received a receipt that there is a ton, handed over a receipt to the RSHB, the bank made sure that there is a receipt and there is grain, he tells NSD, in the blockchain a token is issued to the system.

“Millions of tons of grain – millions of specifications: where is stored, which category, who handed over. And this token is unified, it can already be traded, including in the secondary market. And if someone bought this token, comes to this warehouse and presents the token, then he can get physical grain. After the grain is shipped, the token is destroyed, ”the head of NSD added.

According to him, NSD is negotiating with VTB and OZK – “there is also a very powerful expertise – it’s within the framework of a pilot project how this could be built.” “We are now talking about the spot market, since we plan that the futures part will be covered by NTB (National Commodity Exchange, part of the Moscow Exchange), due to the fact that there is already developed infrastructure,” Astanin said.

At the end of April, the Moscow Exchange reported that it had encountered cases of grain shortages in swap transactions, presumably due to theft. On the facts of shortages, the exchange filed a criminal case.