Development of the market of digital financial assets in the context of ensuring financial sovereignty of Russia

Abstract

Currently, in the context of limited external funding, the issues of forming the financial sovereignty of the country are becoming the subject of scientific discourse among Russian economists. The introduction of digital financial assets (DFA) into business practice and their legislative recognition largely ensures the expansion of investment opportunities for economic entities, which will contribute to the end of the stagnant macroeconomic shock of the period of 2021–2024. The work covers solving such scientific problems as clarifying the essential nature of DFA and developing their classification; assessing the process of functioning of the investment market based on the use of digital financial instruments; identifying key limitations in the functioning of the basic institutions regulating the DFA circulation. The authors proposed a clarified formulation of the economic category of digital financial assets, taking into account the peculiarities of its essential nature. An analysis of the functioning of the domestic DFA market is carried out. Among the factors hindering the development of the DFA market, its fragmentation, low liquidity, and weak institutional regulation of the issue and circulation of DFA are highlighted. The authors emphasize the positive effect of the development of the digital infrastructure of the market, in particular, the increase in the number of investment platforms licensed by the Bank of Russia, the reduction of costs of access to them, the development of a market-making system in the secondary market of digital financial assets. The authors believe that the leveling of the contradictions of the investment market should occur due to the improvement of the institutional environment in the field of strengthening control over transactions with digital financial assets, as well as ensuring their mandatory registration, which is absent at the present stage. The development of the domestic market of digital financial assets has significant potential due to, firstly, the desire of economic entities to replace traditional financial instruments with digital ones, which allow reducing significantly transaction and transformation costs; secondly, the expansion of investment opportunities for economic actors through the use of digital platforms and other elements of the digital ecosystem for the purpose of business development; thirdly, the transformation of the traditional business model, which provides for the transition from vertical interaction of entities to a network form of coordination of economic agents using decentralized financial instruments in their activities.