Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) are getting increasingly popular with Russian investors, apparently displacing traditional investment products, according to a new survey. Russia’s Association of Forex Dealers (AFD), a local self-regulatory organization focused on the foreign exchange market, polled 502 Russian investors to find out the local investor sentiment regarding cryptocurrencies. Released on Tuesday, the survey was conducted from Aug. 4 to Aug. 24, 2021. In the survey, nearly 77% of respondents said that cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ether (ETH) and Litecoin (LTC) are the “most forward-looking” investment. Only 8.8% of respondents indicated that they view gold as the best investment, …

Authorities from Russia’s Zavolzhsky district have found a 34-year-old local man guilty of stealing cryptocurrency mining equipment worth more than 1.6 million Russian rubles (nearly $22,000). According to a report shared by the Prosecutor’s Office of the Yaroslavl Region, the state prosecutor confirmed that the Yaroslavl resident was found entering a friend’s garage unlawfully back in February 2021 and stealing their mining equipment that was intended to be used for earning cryptocurrency. The authorities found the Russian man to be guilty of committing a crime, citing large-scale theft of property and illegal entry. In court, the now-convict reportedly admitted to …

The Russian central bank has once again reiterated its negative stance on Bitcoin (BTC), with one of the bank’s top executives comparing the cryptocurrency with a pyramid scheme. Sergey Shvetsov, the first deputy governor at the Bank of Russia, expressed the authority’s concerns over cryptocurrency investment in a Wednesday interview, warning about the perceived risk of losses by investors. Shvetsov said that local investors have been increasingly pouring their money into alternative financial instruments that he referred to as “technological financial pyramids,” stating that Bitcoin is just one of such pyramid schemes. He said that many retail investors expect huge …

Federal authorities in Russia are moving forward with a plan to closely monitor cryptocurrency activity for illicit transactions and deanonymize crypto users’ identities. The Russian Federal Financial Monitoring Service, also known as Rosfinmonitoring, has selected a contractor for developing a platform for tracking cryptocurrency activity. According to data from Russia’s state procurement website, the country will allocate 14.7 million rubles ($200,000 USD) from its budget to create a “module for monitoring and analyzing cryptocurrency transactions” using Bitcoin (BTC). According to the official data, the procurement contract was granted to a company referred to as RCO, which is reportedly indirectly backed …

The state of cryptocurrency regulation in Russia has taken another twist as a local court has ordered the country’s largest bank to resume account support for a Bitcoin (BTC) trader. Sverdlovsk regional court, a court in Russia’s fourth-largest city of Yekaterinburg, has ordered Sber, formerly known as Sberbank, to unblock account services to a client involved in Bitcoin trading, according to an official announcement on Monday. The client’s bank accounts processed multiple transactions associated with trades on cryptocurrency exchanges from May to August 2020. Sber blocked the individual from access to their bank accounts, citing suspicious transaction activity and Anti-Money …

A group of Russian experts is working on a new blockchain-based service to allow users to bequeath their cryptocurrency holdings and digital rights to the next generation. The National Technological Initiative (NTI), a global technical leadership program in Russia, announced a new digital inheritance tool based on blockchain technology, local news agency RIA Novosti reported Tuesday. The initiative brings together experts from three local universities, including Lomonosov Moscow State University, the National Research Nuclear University and the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. Dubbed “Time Capsule,” the service would allow users to store digital data and assets like social media …

Amid the Bank of Russia continuing progressing with its central bank digital currency (CBDC) development, one survey suggested that few Russians are ready to accept salary payments in the digital ruble. Almost half of the Russian respondents strongly objected to receiving salaries in the digital ruble in a new survey by local recruitment site HeadHunter. Only 11% of respondents said that they were ready to get salaried in the digital ruble, while 41% indicated that they were “categorically opposed” to being paid in the CBDC, local news agency Izvestia reported on Wednesday. As Russia is preparing to roll out digital …

Binance’s NFT marketplace has announced it is teaming up with the Saint Petersburg-based State Hermitage Museum to issue tokenized collectibles depicting the works of renowned artists including Leonardo da Vinci and Vincent van Gogh. On July 27, Binance revealed it is partnering with the museum to create and issue the nonfungible tokens at the end of August. All Binance users will be able to participate in the auction. The blog post attributes the idea to tokenize the artworks to The Hermitage, with the auction slated to launch limited edition NFT copies of Da Vinci’s Madonna Litta, van Gogh’s Lilac Bush, …

As global cryptocurrency companies increasingly consider going public, the Russian central bank has officially recommended local exchanges to avoid crypto-related listings. The Bank of Russia issued an information letter on Monday, asking Russian stock exchanges to stay away from listings of foreign and local companies involved in a broad range of crypto services. The central bank elaborated that local exchanges should not list stocks issued by companies whose business relies on crypto market prices, including digital financial assets issued outside Russia, crypto-tracking indexes, as well as crypto derivatives and crypto funds. The Bank of Russia also recommended asset managers to …

A major cryptocurrency and blockchain association in Russia is launching a project to bring global crypto mining operations to the country amid a Chinese crypto mining crackdown. The Russian Association of Cryptoeconomics, Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain, or RACIB, announced an initiative aimed at transferring global computing resources for crypto mining to the Russian Federation. More information on the project is expected to be released at a later date, a spokesperson for RACIB told Cointelegraph. In order to promote and implement the project, RACIB is closely cooperating with Russian government authorities and state corporations, forming a range of joint working groups …

The9, a Chinese internet company listed on the Nasdaq, is moving forward with its cryptocurrency mining plans by signing a contract with a major Russian data center operator. The company announced Monday that it has signed a crypto-mining hosting agreement with Russian crypto mining services provider BitRiver through its fully-owned subsidiary, NBTC. As part of the agreement, BitRiver will reserve 15 megawatts (MW) of its electric capacity for The9's Bitcoin (BTC) mining machine deployment for an initial term of two years. After the contract expires, both parties have the right to automatically extend their cooperation for one more year, the …

Russian lawmakers are working on new legislation that would allow the government to confiscate cryptocurrencies, according to a senior official. Russian Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov claimed that the government is now developing a set of amendments to the country’s criminal code to allow authorities to seize crypto obtained from illegal activity, local news agency TASS reported. Speaking at a conference of prosecutors’ offices of European countries on Wednesday, Krasnov stressed that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) have been increasingly used for corruption and bribery. The official said that cryptocurrency is also a tool for laundering embezzled budget funds. “The criminal usage …