According to one official in attendance, members of international association BRICS discussed the creation of a new cryptocurrency at a recent summit. On Nov. 14, Russian financial news outlet RBC reported that the director-general of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) Kirill Dmitriev said that the BRICS Business Council supported the idea of creating a single payment system for settlements between the member countries at the 11th annual BRICS Summit in 2019, held in Brazil. Creating a “BRICS” cryptocurrency? The member nations — namely, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — are reportedly planning to develop a single payment …

Coming every Sunday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link. Top Stories This Week Russia: New law would let police confiscate Bitcoin from 2021 We begin in Russia, where the government is pursuing a seemingly impossible law that would allow it to confiscate Bitcoin (BTC). Reports suggest that the plans, which target “digital assets,” could become law in 2021. Nikita Kulikov, the head of a dedicated committee to the …

With each passing day, the financial nitty-gritty associated with the cryptocurrency-related OneCoin Ponzi scheme continues to become of increasing interest to members of the global crypto community. The U.S. government’s previous estimate of the scam that raked in a total of $4 billion seems to be well off the mark, as the figure could be more than three to four times the official estimate — this is according to Jamie Bartlett, the person responsible for the BBC's podcast series The Missing Cryptoqueen. As part of the show, Bartlett and his team followed a trail of clues to track down Ruja …

Russia is planning on creating legal statutes allowing the government to achieve the impossible: confiscation of Bitcoin (BTC). As local financial news outlet RBC reported on Nov. 7 citing sources familiar with the matter, Russia’s interior ministry will work with various state organs to draw up the plans, which could enter into law in 2021. Confiscating the non-confiscatable The push does not single out Bitcoin, but instead refers to “digital assets” as a general phenomenon, chief among which are cryptocurrencies, says RBC. The publication quoted Nikita Kulikov, head of a dedicated committee at the Russian parliament, as explaining: “The constant …

Major global crypto exchange Binance has silently launched Russian ruble trading on Oct. 30 allowing users to deposit and withdraw in RUB. Binance Ruble trading goes live according to the plan Less than two weeks after announcing Binance’s plans to launch fiat trading starting with Russian ruble, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) revealed that ruble trading is live in a tweet on Oct. 31. CZ noted that the launch of Russian ruble was released silently and in conjunction with his interview on Coindesk stating that Russia is one of the biggest markets of Binance exchange. CZ first announced the ruble …

A Bitcoin mining company owned by Russia’s internet ombudsman is planning to open a new facility and corner 20% of the international market. Internet ombudsman targets BTC As local financial news outlet RBC reported on Oct. 29, Russian Mining Company (RMC) plans to repurpose a metal factory in the country’s northern province of Karelia. Closed due to US sanctions in 2018, the ex-Rusal facility could soon host a Bitcoin (BTC) mining farm so large it could account for one-fifth of global output. “Our idea consists of converting the factory and selling its computer power as a service, that is to …

A Russian scientist and former employee at the nation’s premier nuclear research facility was jailed on Oct. 24, for his part in a scheme to secretly mine Bitcoin using the facility’s supercomputers. Stealing energy and computing power from your employer According to an Oct. 25 report by RT, former employee Andrey Rybkin was sentenced to 3 years and three months in prison, for the “unauthorized use of computer capabilities.” Two of his colleagues were previously fined for their roles in the plot, with one also receiving a suspended prison sentence. He was also ordered to pay a fine of 200,000 …

Investors in the Telegram Open Network (TON) and $1.7 billion Gram token sale have voted against the return of their funds, Forbes Russia reported on Oct. 23. Two sources close to the Telegram team told reporters that a majority vote — with the inclusion of investors in both rounds of the offering — had agreed to a postponement of the TON network until April 30 and to uphold their investment in the project. SEC Action As previously reported, TON’s anticipated launch on Oct. 31 has been delayed in the wake of an abrupt intervention from the United States Securities and …

Update: Changpeng Zhao’s comment was translated incorrectly in the article. It was since updated to reiterate the platform’s stance that individuals engaged in crime should not sign up with Binance. Changpeng Zhao, CEO of major cryptocurrency exchange Binance, named Russian President Vladimir Putin as the most influential person in the blockchain industry. Cooperation with the Russian gov’t On Oct. 22, in an article on RBC News, Zhao, also known as CZ within the crypto community, pointed to Russian President Vladimir Putin as the most influential person in the blockchain space. Zhao further said that he believes the bill on regulating …

Major antivirus software supplier ESET has discovered a trojanized Tor Browser designed to steal Bitcoin (BTC) from buyers in the darknet. Fake browser distributed via 2 websites Targeting users in Russia, the fake Tor Browser was distributed via two websites and has been stealing crypto from darknet shoppers by swapping the original crypto addresses since 2017, ESET’s editorial division WeLiveSecurity reported Oct. 18. Created back in 2014, the two fake Tor Browser websites — tor-browser[.]org and torproect[.]org — are mimicking the real website of the anonymous browser, torproject.org. According to the Slovakian software security firm, these websites display a message …

Cointelegraph's website has become widely inaccessible in Russia as authorities added the domain to a registry of blacklisted sites. The blacklist Although Cointelegraph has been publicly on a list of blocked sites since 2017, it was only on Oct. 16 that the Russian Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media, more commonly known as Roskomnadzor, implemented the block on a technical level. The developer of a popular Russian anticensorship browser extension, who wishes to remain anonymous for security reasons, confirmed the block to Cointelegraph. "The URL was added to Roskmonadzor's blacklist file mailed to ISPs yesterday," …

Alfa-Bank and Novolipetsk Steel Company (NLMK), in cooperation with Commerzbank and Vesuvius GmbH, are piloting Russia-Germany cross-border payments on R3’s Marco Polo network. Powered by R3’s Marco Polo Blockchain Global Trade Network On Oct. 11, Alfa-Bank announced that it is launching a foreign trade finance pilot transaction, with the cooperation of NLMK, Commerzbank and Vesuvius GmbH using R3’s Corda-powered Marco Polo Network. In the announcement, Alfa-Bank described itself as Russia’s largest financial institution measured by total assets, total equity, deposit and loan portfolios. The cross-border payment pilot aims to build a digital end-to-end trade finance and supply chain finance solution …