A resident of the Innopolis special economic zone in the Republic of Tatarstan, the Universal Blockchain IT corporation, issued a digital sukuk worth 1 million rubles on the Masterchain platform.

This is the first issue of a digital financial asset (DFA) in Russia that complies with Shariah principles. The head of the DFA Commission of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Oleg Ushakov, said that sukuk is an Islamic financial certificate, somewhat similar to a bond. The differences are that bonds are considered borrowed funds, while digital sukuk are considered shares in a business project.

Ushakov recalled that the main principle of Islamic banking is the prohibition of promising investors earnings from interest income. Holders of classic and digital sukuk can receive exclusively direct profits from the operating activities of the projects.

The investor of the transaction is not specified, but it is reported that the funds will be used to finance the development of the Digital Rank platform, which will create a special ranked list of digital assets and the companies that issue them. It will take two years from the moment of raising funds to the launch of the platform, and the redemption of the DFA will take place in nine hundred days. The issuer will have six months to demonstrate positive financial results.

According to the managing partner of the company, Findustrial Consulting Group Alevtina Kamelkova, DFAs are suitable for Islamic finance. According to her, this form makes it possible to distribute both possible profits and risks between investors, which is typical for Islamic finance in the global market.

Earlier, the Chairman of the Bank of Russia, Elvira Nabiullina, said that she considers the existence of digital financial assets issued in the country useful. In her opinion, they are a convenient form of structuring transactions.