A Russian legislator who was one of the authors of the bill to legalize cryptocurrency mining in the country has been tied to a local over-the-counter (OTC) exchange known as Bankoff. Russian opposition activist Mikhail Khodorkovsky linked Bankoff OTC to lawmaker Andrei Lugovoi in an article of London-based investigative project Dossier Center on Dec. 19. The 6,000-word article was accompanied by a video titled “Crypto-Kremlin: How the authorities launder Bitcoin,” released on Khodorkovksy’s Live YouTube channel. According to Dossier, Bankoff is the most active peer-to-peer trader using Russian rubles on the major global crypto exchange Binance. As previously reported, Binance …

The Russian central bank is ready to consider allowing cryptocurrency use within the country but only as part of a legal experiment, governor Elvira Nabiullina said. “It’s possible to consider transactions through an authorized organization in the country as part of an experimental legal regime, but that would require a relevant law,” Nabiullina stated during a press conference of Bank of Russia on Dec. 16. The Bank of Russia’s only objection has always been that crypto cannot be used as a payment instrument, Nabiullina emphasized. She added that the central bank is also concerned about investor protection because the crypto …

As many countries, entities and even individuals face international sanctions, the crypto industry seeks to find its place among increasing regulations. Digital currencies have often been mentioned as an avenue for those subject to sanctions to divert them, such as in the recent case of Russia. In such instances, exchanges and other industry players need to understand where they stand compliance-wise. Research out of Harvard even suggested that central banks can use Bitcoin (BTC) to fight off sanctions. Speaking to Cointelegraph's managing editor Alex Cohen at the Israel Crypto Conference, Chainalysis head of sanctions Andrew Fierman said sanctions are nuanced …

The Russian central bank continues to maintain an extremely negative stance on cryptocurrencies, proposing to ban local miners from selling coins to local people. The Bank of Russia has supported the idea of legalizing cryptocurrency mining in Russia as part of a draft bill introduced in mid-November 2022. However, the Russian central bank wants to allow miners to sell their crypto only on foreign exchanges and to non-residents of Russia, the local news agency Interfax reported on Dec. 7. “We believe that cryptocurrency obtained as a result of mining can be sold exclusively using foreign infrastructure and only to non-residents,” …

Cryptocurrency miners in Russia appear to be unbothered by the ongoing crisis of crypto mining as the local demand for mining hardware has reportedly been on the surge in Q4 2022. Some crypto mining hardware distributors in Russia have faced a significant spike in demand for mining-designed application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chips, the local news agency Kommersant reported on Dec. 1. Local dealer Chilkoot reported its ASIC sales in November and October exceeded its entire sales made in Q3. Over the past nine months, the distributor reportedly sold 65% more hardware than in 2021. “We are working with legal entities, …

Russia’s largest bank Sber — formerly known as Sberbank — continues developing its blockchain platform by integrating it with the Ethereum blockchain. On Nov. 30, Sber officially announced new opportunities for its proprietary blockchain platform, including compatibility with smart contracts and applications on the Ethereum network. This would allow developers to move smart contracts and entire projects between Sber’s blockchain and public blockchain networks, the bank said. Sber’s latest additions also bring an integration with major software cryptocurrency wallet MetaMask, which is used to interact with the Ethereum blockchain. The integration allows users to make operations with tokens and smart …

Russian President Vladimir Putin criticized monopoly in global financial payment systems and called for an independent and blockchain-based settlement network on Nov 24, speaking at the International AI Journey Conference in Moscow. During the event organized by Sberbank, the largest Russian bank and a major lender to the government, he stated: "The technology of digital currencies and blockchains can be used to create a new system of international settlements that will be much more convenient, absolutely safe for its users and, most importantly, will not depend on banks or interference by third countries. I am confident that something like this …

Russian lawmakers are working on amendments to launch a national crypto exchange. This effort is reportedly supported both by the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Russia which have a long history of disagreement over crypto regulation in the country. As local media reported on Nov. 23, members of the lower chamber of the Russian parliament, the Duma, have been in discussions regarding amendments to the country's existing cryptocurrency legislation “On digital financial assets” with market stakeholders. The amendments, which would lay down a legal framework for a national exchange, will first be presented to the central bank. …

As much as we all would want last week to be about something else, it was still all about FTX. The Supreme Court of the Bahamas has approved two provisional liquidators from PricewaterhouseCoopers to oversee the assets of the crypto exchange, which is headquartered in the country. Several days later, The Securities Commission of the Bahamas ordered the transfer of FTX Digital Markets’ digital assets to a digital wallet owned by the commission to protect “the interests of clients and creditors.” Turkey’s Financial Crimes Investigation Agency became the latest authority to join the investigation into FTX’s collapse. The regulator also …

In October, Greenland was reported to be exploring the feasibility of an online voting platform for its national elections. Among the options being considered is a blockchain-based system. That isn’t entirely surprising. Electronic voting, or e-voting, has long been viewed as a promising use case for blockchain technology. “It’s time for online voting,” wrote Alex Tapscott in a New York Times opinion piece in 2018. “Using blockchain technology, online voting could boost voter participation and help restore the public’s trust in the electoral process and democracy.” It seems especially timely now as large swaths of the world’s population are raising …

A bill was introduced into the Russian State Duma, the lower house of parliament, on Nov. 17 that would legalize cryptocurrency mining and the sale of the cryptocurrency mined. Cryptocurrency cannot currently be used for settlements in Russia. The proposed law reads, “Digital currency obtained as a result of mining can be disposed of by the person who carried out the mining of this digital currency on the condition that Russian information infrastructure is not used in conducting transactions with it, with the exception of cases of transactions carried out in accordance with the established experimental legal regime," as quoted …

The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) is looking at ways to integrate crypto assets and blockchain technology into its local financial system amid a pile-on of global financial sanctions. In a Telegram post by the CBR on Nov. 7, the central bank shared a public consultation report titled "Digital Assets in Russian Federation." It considers how the sanction-hit state may possibly open up its domestic market to foreign issuers of digital assets — particularly those from “friendly countries.” Other areas of focus in the report are digital asset regulation, retail investor protections, digital property rights related to smart contracts and …