DmitrySaksonov

That first job set the pattern he still follows: see the goal, turn the desire into work, gather people, earn it, move to the next level. By seventeen he was running a construction crew of about forty people. At nineteen he borrowed money from an aunt and opened his own auto-body shop, staying in the automotive business until 2016 — through a fire, lost leases, disputes and inspections. He calls that decade his school of responsibility.

A failed cross-border car deal in 2014 left him with debts that took two years to repay. Instead of disappearing, he and his partners worked days, nights and weekends until every obligation was closed. The lesson stayed: a business is not only what you earn, it is what you owe — to lenders, to clients, to your own team.

From 2016 he moved into crypto mining, and after a difficult, publicly disputed period of 2018–2020 he restarted with a small circle of people who had stayed. By 2022 the team pivoted from physical infrastructure to software, AI and digital products — and closed its first major software deal in Dubai after a three-hour meeting that was scheduled for fifteen minutes.

The turn to sport came through people, not markets. In Africa and later in the favelas of Brazil, Saksonov saw teenagers for whom football is not entertainment but the only route out of poverty. That is where the central idea of Blockchain Sports was born: an athlete is a startup. Just as a founder needs an early investor, a young player needs someone to believe before the system does — with resources, infrastructure and transparent rules.

In February 2024 the project was presented in Dubai at Coca-Cola Arena to an audience of more than 16,000. Rapid growth followed — and then a painful crisis: funding stopped, salaries were delayed, the team was cut from about 1,500 people to a core of roughly 270. Saksonov acknowledges the cash gap and the late restructuring, and describes the period as a managerial rebirth: fewer directions, a stronger core, a focus on Blockchain Sports Arena and the ATLETA network.

Today ATOM Group brings together JGGL — an AI social network live on iOS and Android, ATLETA — a Layer 1 blockchain for the sports industry, Blockchain Sports with football academies in Brazil and XR hardware, IMBA Music — a label for independent and AI artists, and ARTEKI Studio — a full-cycle AI animation house. In October 2026 the group hosts the ATOM GLOBAL AI EXPO in Minsk, one of the largest AI exhibitions in Europe.