Russia mining and metals giant firm Norilsk Nickel may launch its custom stablecoin next year according to reports from a local news outlet. The CEO of Nornickel, Vladimir Potanin said that the organization was planning to introduce a new stablecoin into the crypto market that will be backed by metals. Even though the mining firm expects a 2019 launch for the stablecoin, the exact timetable will be dependent on numerous factors.

The vision behind this stablecoin project from Norilsk Nickel is to create a virtual asset that can offer the desired benefits of price stability within a very volatile market. Potanin commented in an interview by a news business outlet that they wanted to build a cryptocurrency that genuinely meets the main features of a stablecoin. He also added that the fact that the coin would be pegged to the company’s metals would give it more stability.

The reason why Norilsk Nickel is looking to the crypto market is that they consider it as one of the effective alternative methods of securing affordable financing. The reality is that conventional funding techniques have become quite costly and complicated for Russian companies, precisely due to the Western sanctions. Potanin hopes that their metal-pegged stablecoin will attract entirely new investor groups with substantial capital to spend.

According to the well-known billionaire entrepreneur, switching to virtual technologies is a sound business decision for Russian organizations. He strongly thinks that these virtual solutions will offer more flexibility and protection against the country’s economic state and sanctions by providing enough space for additional maneuvers. Digital assets create an exceedingly friendlier and free business environment that is far less susceptible to sanctions as compared to traditional financial markets and the economy.

Potanin also revealed that he had more plans besides launching the stablecoin, including developing various crypto derivatives like a cryptocurrency exchange and others. He plans on creating these projects at a different company that he owns, Interros, which is a private investment firm that holds huge stakes across multiple sectors of the nation’s economy.

Nevertheless, Potanin said that he was not ruling out the possibility of launching the crypto projects abroad. He said that his decision would be made based on an evaluation of the current state of Russia’s cryptocurrency sector. There are plenty of legal and regulatory issues surrounding digital assets that are yet to be settled in Russia.

It appears that stablecoins are trending at the moment, with financial startups and crypto exchanges launching their stablecoins, backed by a commodity or fiat currency. Nevertheless, experts predict that this trend could cause problems, like freezing of assets, which could undermine the worth of the crypto sector.

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