Since March 1, 2020, the number of new Bitcoin ATMs installed worldwide is nearing 10,000. According to the latest data from Coin ATM Radar, the current number of machines stands at 16,835, a strong 57.5% increase, or 9,683 new machines, as compared with 7,152 last year. Back in Nov. 2020, Cointelegraph had reported a striking year-on-year increase of 80%. As previously, the vast majority of machines continue to be located in the United States, where 81% (13,699 out of 16,835 machines globally) are installed. Within the U.S., growth has been unparalleled, rising by 177% since March 1, 2020, or from …

Russian oil firm Gazprom Neft's aviation subsidiary, Gazpromneft-Aero, announced Monday that it has completed a successful pilot of its blockchain-based refueling project, Smart Fuel. The new platform was implemented for more than 100 scheduled flights of Russian budget airline Smartavia, operating at Murmansk's international airport. Alongside Smartavia, the pilot involved major banks VTB and Raiffeisenbank. Dmitry Makarov, head of the Smart Fuel project, told Cointelegraph that the blockchain-based trial in Murmansk ran from September 2020 to December 2020. Following the successful pilot, Gazpromneft-Aero will continue providing its refueling payment solution to Smartavia, Makarov said. Based on the major blockchain framework …

Alexei Navalny is a noted leader of the Russian opposition. His “Anti-Corruption Foundation” (FBK) has been a thorn in President Vladimir Putin’s side for many years. Though the FBK has been locked out of mainstream politics — much as Navalny has been blocked from running in recent elections — its investigations have managed to garner an audience that Putin has found stubbornly difficult to disperse. That audience has transformed into protests across the country. On top of it all, Navalny’s story highlights an important use case for Bitcoin in a country that effectively sanctions media that don't toe the official …

With roughly 100 million members, the church representing the dominant religion in Russia has no plans to accept cryptocurrency donations or offerings. According to a Q&A streamed on YouTube by Jesus Portal, the chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Hilarion Alfeyev, said the Russian Orthodox Church, or ROC, is not planning to create its own digital currency, nor is it planning to accept cryptocurrency including Bitcoin (BTC) for donations. However, Alfeyev added it was possible to use other forms of technology to send money to the church: phone calls. "We are unlikely to accept …

Global cryptocurrency mining operators are increasingly moving their equipment to Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States as they chase lower energy prices. Igor Runets, founder and CEO of Russian crypto mining firm BitRiver, told local news agency Kommersant Thursday that the company is actively building up its power capacity to meet increasing demand from American and European investors. According to the executive, BitRiver has run out of spare capacity at its data centers, having fully reserved all of its power for the next 18 months. During this period, the company expects to co-locate mining equipment of total mining power …

Russian lawmakers are actively preparing new legislation for taxing cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC). According to an official announcement by the Russian State Duma, the Duma’s Committee on State Building and Legislation has approved a bill on cryptocurrency taxation on Feb. 15. The new bill represents a set of amendments to the Russian federal tax code. As part of the draft bill, the Russian government officially recognizes cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin as property, aiming to tax profits from crypto trading by Russian residents. The bill targets all domestic residents including citizens and foreigners, as well as Russian and international organizations established in …

Major Russian mobile network operators like MegaFon and Beeline are considering how the digital ruble will function on their mobile devices. According to a Feb. 16 report by local news agency Izvestia, Beeline and MegaFon proposed to set up smartphone wallets for Russia’s central bank digital currency. The carriers also suggested additional services like linking a digital wallet to a customer’s phone number. This would allow users to store digital rubles directly on their smartphones as well as transfer and pay with the digital currency using smart devices, a spokesperson for MegaFon said. According to Izvestia, both MegaFon and Beeline …

Russia has reportedly imported thousands of cryptocurrency mining devices amid a massive surge in the crypto market. A senior executive at BitRiver, the largest crypto mining colocation services provider in Russia, claimed that a local client received over 20,000 crypto mining devices, Russian news agency Kommersant reports Feb. 10. BitRiver founder and CEO Igor Runets said that the total mining power of the imported hardware amounts to 70 MWh, which is reportedly estimated to make up the largest single batch of crypto mining hardware in Russia. Runets said that the hardware was delivered in December 2020 and was immediately set …

After hitting a new all-time high of more than $48,000 earlier today, the market capitalization of Bitcoin has surpassed the total market cap of the Russian ruble. According to data from AssetDash, Bitcoin’s market cap is $871 billion at the time of publication. This exceeds the money supply of the Russian ruble, which as of January was estimated to be 58.6 trillion RUB, currently valued at roughly $791.1 billion. The crypto asset has also overtaken Tesla Motors in market capitalization after a brief retreat yesterday — the car manufacturer’s market cap is $813 billion at the time of publication, having …

The main challenge companies face when testing and implementing innovative technologies is the need to amend existing legislation. Developing and testing new products based on distributed ledger technology requires special conditions that are often inconsistent with existing regulations. The solution to this problem would be the introduction of a special “regulatory sandbox” regime. It means the creation of an ecosystem within which companies and state-owned enterprises can test their developments without legislative obstacles. Federal law No. 258, “On Experimental Legal Regimes in the Field of Digital Innovation in the Russian Federation,” came into effect on Jan. 28. It allows new …

Editor's note It may be too late for resolutions and too early for Lent, but lacking any discrete occasion, I would still like to give up United States political news for a while, or at least for the duration of one Law Decoded. Fortunately, in the spirit of going international and leaving the bonkers election cycle of the U.S., blockchain technology and stablecoins are playing a major role in the latest developments in cross-border payments and settlements. It’s long been one of the most talked-about applications of blockchain technology. Diplomatic scheming shows up in payments by regular folks in the …

Russia adopted its cryptocurrency law in January, but this legislation does not provide a direct answer to some questions, including how local officials should deal with their crypto holdings. There are at least two other legal initiatives requiring Russian public officials to declare or even get rid of their cryptocurrency holdings entirely in 2021. On Dec. 10, 2020, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree obliging some public officials to disclose their crypto holdings by June 30. The decree was adopted as part of the country’s law “On Digital Financial Assets,” or DFA, which was made effective on Jan. 1. …