Russia could soon be taking a cue from Iran by using cryptocurrencies for imports, according to comments from the Russian prime Minister. The adoption of digital assets is necessary as a “safe alternative” for cross-border payments, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin declared at a strategic session on the development of the domestic financial system on Tuesday. The prime minister added that digital assets provide a good opportunity to ensure uninterrupted payments for imports and exports. Mishustin also pointed out the importance of ensuring tech infrastructure independence and cybersecurity of financial institutions, stating: “We need to intensively develop innovative areas, including …

Cryptocurrency adoption in Russia has not been moving too fast as an overwhelming majority of Russians have apparently not ever bought crypto, according to a new survey. Switzerland-based cryptocurrency wallet provider Tangem has conducted a poll to learn more about cryptocurrency investors in Russia, local news agency Kommersant reported on Thursday. As many as 72% of the 2,100 respondents in the survey claimed that they have never bought cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC), which leaves Russian crypto investors in a significant minority. At the same time, just 9% survey participants indicated that they were negative toward cryptocurrencies while 45% of respondents …

Japanese financial giant SBI Holdings has partly terminated cryptocurrency mining in Russia due to geopolitical uncertainty and the crypto winter. SBI Holdings suspended mining operations in Russia’s crypto mining-rich region of Siberia, citing reasons like Russia-Ukraine conflict and the ongoing bear market, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. The Japanese online brokerage shut down the Siberian mining operations shortly after Russia started a military intervention in Ukraine on Feb. 24, a spokesperson for the firm reportedly said. The termination contributed to SBI’s crypto asset business reporting a pretax loss of 9.7 billion yen ($71 million) in Q2 202. As a result, the …

The crypto community has poured in an impressive $54 million worth of crypto funds through “Aid For Ukraine," aimed at supporting the country's military efforts against Russia, the Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister has revealed. The $54 million has been funneled in through the Ukrainian government-run initiative 'Aid For Ukraine', according to Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov’s Twitter post on Thursday, who thanked the crypto community for their support: “Every helmet, bulletproof vest, and night vision device save the lives of Ukrainian soldiers. Thus, we must continue to support our defenders. Thanks so much to everyone from the crypto community …

Summer is still on, harvesting the fresh names for its list of the crypto companies in deep trouble. This time, the trouble came not from the market or management but from the United States Treasury Department. The regulator has added more than 40 cryptocurrency addresses allegedly connected to crypto mixer Tornado Cash to the Specially Designated Nationals list. These individuals and groups allegedly laundered more than $7 billion worth of cryptocurrency. Accusations like this don’t come easy — one of the co-founders of Tornado Cash has reported his account suspended at GitHub, while the issuer of the USD Coin (USDC) …

The Bank of Russia continues working towards the upcoming adoption of the central bank digital currency (CBDC), planning an official digital ruble rollout in a few years. According to the Bank of Russia’s latest monetary policy update, the authority will begin to connect all banks and credit institutions to the digital ruble platform in 2024. That would be an important year for Russia as the country is expected to hold presidential elections in March 2024 and incumbent President Vladimir Putin has the constitutional right to get re-elected. By that time, the central bank expects to complete “real money” customer-to-customer transaction …

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a bill into law prohibiting digital financial assets as payments more than a month after it was introduced to the country’s lower chamber of Parliament. In a Thursday update, the Russian State Duma noted that Putin signed a bill suspending certain parts of an existing federal law “on banks and banking activities,” effectively making it illegal for people to use cryptocurrencies to pay for goods and services. The initial draft of the bill from June 7 specified the “prohibition against the introduction of other monetary units or monetary surrogates on the territory of the …

In a fresh episode of the longstanding battle between the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) and the country's Ministry of Finance, representatives of the former have criticized the latter’s idea of supporting the stablecoins, which some private investors have sought to launch in the country. According to local media, an unnamed representative of the central bank dismissed talk of Russia-based stablecoins, started last week by the Ministry of Finance’s director of financial policy department Ivan Chebeskov. Back then, Chebeskov voiced his ministry’s support for creating stablecoins tied to assets like “the ruble, gold, oil or grain.” He called it “the …

Officials representing the United States government have reportedly urged Japan’s licensed cryptocurrency exchanges to stop doing business with Russia, seemingly as part of the country’s economic sanctions. According to a Thursday report from the Financial Times, U.S. diplomats requested several of the 31 crypto exchanges licensed to do business in Japan and certain miners to halt operations in Russia. Japan’s financial watchdog, the Financial Services Agency, or FSA reportedly issued demands to the respective exchanges to sever any remaining ties with Russia. 国務省は、「米国は、G20およびその他の国際パートナーとの関与を継続し、ロシアのウクライナ侵攻に起因する人道的課題、とりわけロシアの侵略戦争が世界の食料およびエネルギー安全保障に及ぼす悪影響に対処していく」とツイートしました。 https://t.co/NIzKSzkte4 — アメリカ大使館 (@usembassytokyo) July 8, 2022 Cryptocurrencies have become a point of contention among many lawmakers …

Russia continues sending mixed messages about the legal status of cryptocurrency, with a parliament official urging the launch of crypto trading on the country’s largest stock exchange. The Moscow Exchange (MOEX) is the best match for hosting a regulated crypto exchange in Russia, according to Anatoly Aksakov, head of the Russian Banking Association and a financial committee within the State Duma. At a recent press conference, Aksakov stressed the importance of building a crypto exchange under the strict requirements of the Russian central bank, local news agency Prime reported on Thursday. The lawmaker pointed out that MOEX is likely to …

Major cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX is working to increase compliance with the European sanctions against Russia by preparing to enforce major restrictions for its Russian users. BitMEX is changing its restricted jurisdictions policy to be compliant with various restrictive measures of the European Union, Cointelegraph has learned. The BitMEX crypto exchange notified a group of potentially affected users about the upcoming changes via email on Monday. According to an email seen by Cointelegraph, Russian citizens or residents will no longer be able to access BitMEX services from the European Union after July 11, 2022. That means that such users will not …

Kirill Pronin, head of the Russian Central Bank (CBR)’s department of financial technologies, acknowledged the possibility of crypto mining legalization under certain conditions. A public acknowledgment like this makes a rare case, as the CBR continues to lead the battle against the efforts to legalize crypto in the country. The executive expressed his views on mining at the Saint-Petersburg International Legal Forum on Wednesday, June 29. During the session, dedicated to cryptocurrencies, Pronin revealed that CBR doesn’t take the same kind of hardline position on mining as it does in the case of general crypto legalization: "Despite the fact that …