According to a filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, the Chinese company The9 Ltd bought 5,297,257 tokens during a Telegram initial token offering in January 2018 for $2 million dollars. The filing also states that The9 has invested in multiple blockchain-based companies as of 2018. According to a report by Russian business news agency RBC on July 24, this document is evidence of The9 as the first publicly-known foreign investor. Per RBC, Telegram’s initial coin offering (ICO) investors are largely unknown. Few details about ICO participants forthcoming During the first ICO, 81 investors contributed to raise a …

In a world where the global crypto community continues to face a growing number of regulatory hurdles with each passing day, the term “virgin Bitcoin” is starting to become more common among digital currency enthusiasts. However, it is of utmost importance to clarify what this term actually means and the significance it carries. According to Dave Jevans, the CEO of CipherTrace, virgin Bitcoins are essentially BTC tokens that do not have a transaction (TX) record associated with them. As a result of this, coins lack a defined attribution history, making them extremely useful for money launderers as well as other …

Founder of token issuance platform Waves has fully sold his stake in the firm’s blockchain spin-off Vostok to focus on the Waves Platform. Alexander Ivanov, CEO and founder of Waves, sold his stake in the Vostok, with global financial group GHP Group becoming the sole owner of the project, according to a press release on July 16. Ivanov said that he decided to sell the Vostok project in order to focus the resources on the development of the Web3 ecosystem within the Waves Platform. Mark Garber, chairman of the board of directors of GHP Group and one of the early …

The American Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) has assembled an assessment of current and future risks of cryptocurrency use by countries adversarial to the United States in a report published on July 11. In the report, the agency outlines possible future scenarios that would make blockchain technology sanctions resistance a larger threat. Specifically, the FDD analyzed how countries such as Russia, China, Venezuela and Iran are deploying digital currency technology, and in what way this phenomenon could influence United States sanctions in future. In the report, the FDD warns against a scenario in which one of the above countries …

Russian mining and smelting giant Nornickel is planning to roll out a digital platform for metals trading by the end of 2019, local news outlet TASS reported on July 9. The vice-president of Nornickel, Andrey Bugrov told TASS that “the preparation process was quite lengthy, but nevertheless, we plan to bring this product [digitization of metal trading] to the market by the end of 2019 and begin trading our tokens." Bugrov also said that the token trading program could be worth nearly $1 billion, but that is rather a target figure. He pointed out the necessity to analyze market demand …

Russia’s parliament, the State Duma, may defer the adoption of the country’s major crypto bill “On Digital Financial Assets” (DFA) until the autumn session, local news outlet TASS reported on July 9. The Duma is considering shifting the adoption of the DFA bill to the autumn session, while the representatives have largely agreed on a bill on crowdfunding, according to the chairman of the State Duma Committee on Financial Markets, Anatoly Aksakov. Aksakov further explained that officials have not been able to reach a common position on the fate of digital currencies in Russia, saying: "The law on the DFA …

Russia will not develop a separate regulation for Facebook’s cryptocurrency Libra, according to Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseev, Interfax reported on July 1 Moiseev stated that Russia will not introduce separate legislation for Libra as there will be uniform rules for all circulating digital currencies. "No one is going to introduce a ban. A large number of businesses ask when it will finally be possible to legally conduct an ICO [initial coin offering] transparently. This will definitely be regulated, permitted, and that is about it," Moiseev said. Moiseev noted that the issue is whether "cryptocurrency will have approximately the same …

The servers Edward Snowden used to leak thousands of documents to journalists were paid for using bitcoin (BTC), the National Security Agency whistleblower revealed at the Bitcoin 2019 Conference on June 27. Snowden was working as a CIA subcontractor in 2013 when his leak revealed that telecom companies and governments were involved in “almost Orwellian” mass surveillance programs that swept up the phone records of unsuspecting Americans. Speaking via video-link from Russia, he described the ability to exchange and transact without being watched and recorded “is the foundation of all rights” — and said bitcoin was helping to deliver privacy …

In Russia, fraudsters rarely use cryptocurrency to withdraw stolen money, according to the country’s central bank. The news was reported by local news outlet TASS on June 21. The first deputy director of the Information Security Department of the Bank of Russia, Artem Sychev, told TASS that the central bank monitors methods of withdrawing funds and develops additional protective measures. Per the bank, criminals prefer to cash stolen money out rather than withdraw them with digital currency. Sychev said: “In the Russian Federation, this [withdrawing of stolen funds with crypto] is used very rarely. Yes, sometimes cryptocurrencies are used to …

A representative of the Russian Ministry of Finance (MinFin) says the ministry is considering allowing cryptocurrency trading, Russian news service Interfax reported on June 21. Per the report, the Deputy Minister of Finance Alexei Moiseyev told journalists on Friday that, while MinFin had reached no final decision, cryptocurrency trading may be allowed in the coming bill on the circulation of cryptocurrencies in the Russian Federation. A bill prohibiting the use of crypto assets as a means of payment in the Russian Federation passed in May of last year. Anatoly Aksakov, head of the Duma Financial Market Committee, called the pending …

A new survey by Moscow-based cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab introduced on June 17th revealed that 19% of people globally have purchased cryptocurrency. The survey, titled “The Kaspersky Cryptocurrency Report 2019,” was carried out in October and November 2018, with a total of 13,434 respondents in 22 countries. According to the report, 81% of global population have never purchased cryptocurrencies, while only 10% of respondents said they “fully understand how cryptocurrencies work.” Meanwhile, just 14% of those who haven’t ever used cryptocurrencies would like to do so in the future, the report notes. Key findings of The Kaspersky Cryptocurrency Report 2019. …

Chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee on Financial Market Anatoly Aksakov has said that Facebook’s forthcoming cryptocurrency Libra will not be legalized in Russia, local news outlet TASS reported on June 18. Aksakov stated that Russia will not legalize the use of Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency which the company intends to roll out in 2020, because it may pose a threat to the financial system of the country. Aksakov also stressed that Russia has no plans to adopt legislation “which provides space for the active use of crypto tools created in the framework of open platforms, blockchains.” Aksakov’s statements would …