Japanese financial giant SBI Holdings has partly terminated cryptocurrency mining in Russia due to geopolitical uncertainty and the crypto winter. SBI Holdings suspended mining operations in Russia’s crypto mining-rich region of Siberia, citing reasons like Russia-Ukraine conflict and the ongoing bear market, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. The Japanese online brokerage shut down the Siberian mining operations shortly after Russia started a military intervention in Ukraine on Feb. 24, a spokesperson for the firm reportedly said. The termination contributed to SBI’s crypto asset business reporting a pretax loss of 9.7 billion yen ($71 million) in Q2 202. As a result, the …

Stablecoins were supposed to be the boring uncle of the crypto world — safe, sensible and dull. They’re probably not what Satoshi Nakamoto had in mind, but they’re supposed to be a reassuring haven of calm and utility away from the turbulence of pure-play cryptocurrencies. With values pegged to fiat currencies, stablecoins were intended to be useful rather than to offer get-rich-quick schemes. They play an important role in the cryptocurrency ecosystem by providing a safer place to store capital without having to cash out entirely, and allowing assets to be denominated in fiat currencies rather than volatile tokens. However, …

Officials representing the United States government have reportedly urged Japan’s licensed cryptocurrency exchanges to stop doing business with Russia, seemingly as part of the country’s economic sanctions. According to a Thursday report from the Financial Times, U.S. diplomats requested several of the 31 crypto exchanges licensed to do business in Japan and certain miners to halt operations in Russia. Japan’s financial watchdog, the Financial Services Agency, or FSA reportedly issued demands to the respective exchanges to sever any remaining ties with Russia. 国務省は、「米国は、G20およびその他の国際パートナーとの関与を継続し、ロシアのウクライナ侵攻に起因する人道的課題、とりわけロシアの侵略戦争が世界の食料およびエネルギー安全保障に及ぼす悪影響に対処していく」とツイートしました。 https://t.co/NIzKSzkte4 — アメリカ大使館 (@usembassytokyo) July 8, 2022 Cryptocurrencies have become a point of contention among many lawmakers …

Bitcoin (BTC) is a tool for freedom and economic empowerment. For one young Zimbabwean, Ovidy, it turned his life around when he returned to his home country at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. An entrepreneur who first learned of Bitcoin while living in the United States, Ovidy has since built a business with Bitcoin at its core. Below, Ovidy (center) is pictured with Paco the Bitcoin traveler (left): Day 276 Obidy imports cars in Zimbabwe using #bitcoin pic.twitter.com/Y2TmZZX6Bv — Paco de la India⚡ (@RunwithBitcoin) June 20, 2022 Ovidy imports cars using Bitcoin. “I really like to import BMWs,” he …

The “long waves” of TerraUSD’s May 7 collapse, which we noted two newsletters ago, are extending even further. Last week brought some notable reactions to the stablecoin’s depegging in the East Asia region. A Chinese state-owned media outlet, the Economic Daily has signaled that the Chinese government may introduce even tighter regulations on cryptocurrencies and stablecoins due to the collapse of the Terra ecosystem. It might even mean a complete ban on stablecoins to prohibit ownership, transfer, purchase and sale of the assets, some experts believe. What China plans, Japan does — as a new law will limit the issuance …

Japan’s Justice Ministry is reportedly considering a revision of an asset seizure law relating to organized crime to include a stipulation that crypto can be commandeered in such instances. If the reports are found to be true, a potential revision of the Act on Punishment of Organized Crimes and Control of Proceeds of Crime (1999) would enable law enforcement officers and courts to take control of crypto assets used in criminal activity such as money laundering. According to reports from local media outlets such as the Yomiuri Shimbun on Saturday, the Justice Ministry will first need to engage in talks …

The total crypto market capitalization has ranged from $1.19 trillion to $1.36 trillion for the past 23 days, which is a relatively tight 13% range. During the same time, Bitcoin’s (BTC) 3.5% and Ether’s (ETH) 1.6% gains for the week are far from encouraging. To date, the total crypto market is down 43% in just two months, so investors are unlikely to celebrate even if the descending triangle formation breaks to the upside. Regulation worries continue to weigh investor sentiment, a prime example being Japan’s swift decision to enforce new laws after the Terra USD (UST) — now known as …

Japan is moving forward with legislation regarding the issuance of stablecoins, i.e., digital assets with their value pegged to fiat currencies or stabilized by an algorithm. On Friday, Japan’s parliament passed a bill to ban stablecoin issuance by non-banking institutions, local news agency Nikkei reported. The bill reportedly stipulates that the issuance of stablecoins is limited to licensed banks, registered money transfer agents and trust companies in Japan. The new legislation also introduces a registration system for financial institutions to issue such digital assets and provides measures against money laundering. According to the report, the bill aims to protect investors …

Two out of the top 10 largest cryptocurrency exchanges by volume will expand into new markets, with Crypto.com obtaining a provisional crypto license in Dubai and FTX launching in Japan. Crypto.com announced on Thursday that the Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) provided the exchange with provisional approval of its virtual asset license, giving the company the go-ahead based on initial compliance checks. The exchange said that VARA will carry out further due diligence and other mandated requirements before its full operating license is issued, which it expects to happen in the “near term.” Crypto.com said in March it would …

Excitement for the Metaverse and virtual/augmented reality (VR/AR) is much greater in developing countries than in high-income countries, according to a survey conducted for the World Economic Forum (WEF). Market research firm Ipsos released the results of the survey on Wednesday, showing the concept is now widely recognized: 52% of more than 21,000 adults surveyed across 29 countries are familiar with the Metaverse and 50% have positive feelings about engaging with it in daily life. China, India, Peru, Saudi Arabia and Colombia were the top five countries where two-thirds or more of respondents said they had positive feelings toward it. …

Bitcoin (BTC) price has been unable to close above $32,000 for the past fifteen days and is currently down 37% year-to-date. Although that might seem excessive, it does not stand out among some of the largest U.S.-listed tech companies that have also sustained notable losses recently. In this same 15-day period, Shopify Inc. (SHOP) stock dropped 76%, Snap Inc. (SNAP) crashed 73%, Netflix (NFLX) is down 70% and Cloudflare (NET) presented a negative 62% performance. Cryptocurrency investors should be less concerned about the current "bear market" considering Bitcoin's 79% annualized volatility. However, that is clearly not the case, because Bitcoin's …

In a new development for East Asia, Japanese crypto exchange Bitbank announced a partnership with financial holding company Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings to establish Japan Digital Asset Trust (JADAT). According to an announcement sent to Cointelegraph on Tuesday, JADAT will offer custodial services and auditing and wallet insurance. The company is designed to facilitate the entrance of institutional players into the Japanese digital asset market. Once established, the firm will specialize in custody services for digital asset holdings, including cryptocurrency, security tokens on public blockchains, stablecoins and nonfungible tokens (NFTs). Bitbank is one of the largest crypto exchanges in Asia, …