The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged actor Steven Seagal for promoting an initial coin offering (ICO) without disclosing that he was paid for it. He was ordered to pay back over $330,000 to the commission. In March 2018, Steven Seagal was contracted by ICO project “Bitcoiin2Gen” (B2G) to promote the sale on his social media channels, as well as appearing as a brand ambassador in the project’s marketing materials. While he was promised $250,000 in cash and $750,000 in B2G tokens, the Feb. 27 disclosure by the SEC maintains that he only received $157,000 from his promotional deal. …

Recently, financial regulators around the world have been growing concerned about the role of cryptocurrency in money laundering and financing of various illicit activities. The first two months of 2020 saw many governments acting on these concerns and introducing a variety of legal measures designed to bolster their defenses against financial cybercrime allegedly facilitated by the use of digital money. Russia has become the latest of the major jurisdictions to make a move in this direction, as the Central Bank of Russia unveiled last week a revised set of indicators by which financial institutions are advised to recognize suspicious transactions …

Russia’s richest man, Vladimir Potanin, is making steady headway with his blockchain-based trading platform for industrial assets and commodities. The billionaire’s venture, dubbed Atomyze, launched today, Feb. 25, in test mode. Potanin’s mining and smelting firm Nornickel will be the first to issue tokens on the platform, which is designed to speed up transactions, enable surplus supply trading and cut back on the red tape needed for interactions between customers and businesses. Atomyze is based on IBM’s Hyperledger Fabric blockchain technology, and Nornickel’s partners Trafigura, Traxys, and Umicore have been invited to participate in the platform’s testing phase. In an …

The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) published a new set of rules for suspicious transactions, Russian finance publication RBC reported on Feb. 17. The update broadly categorizes any cryptocurrency-linked transaction as a potential money laundering risk. The bank issued an update to directive 375-P, which lists all signs of suspicious activity that may be linked to money laundering. This is the first such update since 2012, when the initial regulations were introduced. The manual was developed in collaboration with the Federal Service for Financial Monitoring (Rosfinmonitoring). A central bank representative explained that this was done to “add new schemes of …

A successful tokenization trial could lead to big changes in Russia’s proposed cryptocurrency legislation. The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) announced on Feb. 17 the completion of a blockchain tokenization pilot using a platform developed by Nornickel within its regulatory sandbox. The bank subsequently proposed to amend Russia’s digital assets law to accommodate tokenization platforms. The platform is open to all organizations and it allows them to issue hybrid tokens backed by a basket of assets. The technology is said to expand financing possibilities for businesses, while giving new investment options for its users. The head of CBR’s fintech division …

Russian President Vladimir Putin is the most influential person in the blockchain industry, according to Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of major cryptocurrency exchange Binance, which added five trading pairs: Binance Coin (BNB), Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and XRP at the beginning of December, as well as adding Tether (USDT) later the same month against the Russian ruble. Putin was the first to propose a multinational cryptocurrency along with the Eurasian Economic Union, or EAEU, and BRICS countries after being advised by Vitalik Buterin in the wake of the 2017 cryptocurrency bubble. Related: Pax Crypto: Russia Proposes First Multinational Cryptocurrency, Expert …

Russia is apparently becoming a more attractive market for cryptocurrency firms as another major crypto platform is adding Russian language support. Poloniex, a popular crypto exchange originally based in the United States, has begun adding the Russian language on its platform just three months after leaving the U.S. market. Announcing the news in a Feb. 13 blog post, Poloniex said that it had started introducing a “partially localized” version of Poloniex for Russian speaking users. The exchange noted that the currently presented Poloniex interface in Russian is just a starting point as the team has translated just a small part …

Binance has further expanded its services for Russia’s fiat currency. The exchange is adding Russian ruble pairs for its peer-to-peer trading platform, a Feb. 11 announcement reads. The platform is available via Binance’s mobile app for iOS and Android. Users can now buy and sell Tether (USDT), Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Binance Coin (BNB) for rubles through a network of peers with zero transaction fees. Binance P2P was launched in October 2019 to facilitate fiat-to-crypto access across the world. While initially serving Chinese users paying in Chinese yuan, the platform later expanded to accommodate Vietnamese dong and now, the …

After spending 30 months in detention, Greek authorities have finally extradited the Russian national and alleged Bitcoin (BTC) money launderer Alexander Vinnik to France. Prosecutors in France are charging Vinnik, operator of the defunct BTC-e crypto exchange, with multiple counts of money laundering, extortion and conspiracy. Vinnik also has pending extradition requests from both Russia and the United States. The alleged Bitcoin criminal has previously stated his preference for extradition to his native homeland, which Greek officials have turned down. Thus, after the conclusion of his trial in France, Vinnik will return to Greece to face another extradition to the …

Binance, the second-largest crypto exchange by daily trading volume, has enabled instant purchases of four major digital currencies with the Russian ruble. The development allows Binance users to link their Visa banking card and purchase Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Binance Coin (BNB) and XRP with the ruble, according to a Feb. 5 announcement. The exchange claims that users can complete a purchase in less than a minute and do not have to make deposits prior to a purchase. In the near future, Binance is planning to launch Mastercard support, as well as other currencies. One of the top-ten markets on …

Russian government-backed corporation Rostec intends to cut spendings on the blockchain development in the country by at least 50%. According to Rostec’s roadmap, the organization is planning to spend 28.4 billion rubles ($453.2 million) on the development of blockchain technologies in Russia by 2024, instead of initial 55 billion ($877.8 million) to 85 billion rubles ($1.3 billion). The news was reported by domestic news outlet Kommersant on Jan. 27. The corporation detailed that the introduction of blockchain tech into the product labeling system will require 650 million rubles ($10.3 million), into healthcare system 1.17 billion rubles ($18.6 million), of which …

For most people, the word “stablecoin” brings to mind cryptocurrencies like Tether or Libra. However, there are many versions of stablecoins — ranging from those that are backed by fiat money to those that are backed by real assets or even other digital currencies. Simply put, a stablecoin’s main aim is to solve the problem of volatility by being a digital asset that is tied to another asset with a stable value. The new year is already turning out to be an exciting time for stablecoins as interest among financial institutions picks up speed. There is talk of companies like …