In less than a month, the draft of a crypto mining bill in the Russian parliament has lost several key points, such as the obligation for mining operators to join a special registry and a one-year tax amnesty for all those who've registered. As the reasoning goes, the previous draft would lead to federal budget losses. The fresh draft of the law “On mining in Russian Federation,” dating to last Frida, appeared in the database of the lower chamber of the Russian parliament, the State Duma. The document bears several significant changes from the past version, presented by co-sponsors on …

Russia will legalize crypto payments “sooner or later,” according to the Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, Denis Manturov. The country’s government has been exploring various crypto adoption plays throughout 2022, but is yet to finalize any concrete policy concerning digital asset payments. However, its legalization has been recommended by Russia’s Finance Ministry via its “On Digital Currency” bill from April. According to a translation of a Thursday report from local media outlet TASS, Manturov was questioned at the New Horizon educational forum this week on whether legalized crypto payments were in the works: “I think so. …

The Chinese government has not managed to take down cryptocurrency operations as part of its crypto ban last year as China has re-emerged as one of the world’s largest Bitcoin (BTC) mining hubs, according to a new report. China became the second-largest Bitcoin hash rate provider as of January 2022, months after the local government banned all crypto operations in the country, according to the latest update from the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI) shared with Cointelegraph on Tuesday. Bitcoin miners in China accounted for 21.1% of the total global BTC mining hash rate distribution as of early 2022, …

Decentralized blockchain technology has been around for a relatively short period of time, in the grand scheme of things, but its decentralized nature has the power to keep data and information out of the hands of censors looking to create a “safe” and “faultless” version of history. Blockchain is permissionless and literally owned by no one. So, while we can’t save the Alexandria libraries of the past, we can make sure the future is well equipped with the tools necessary to preserve historical records. Here we’ll look at some of the ways nonfungible tokens (NFT) and blockchain technology have been …

Authorities in the U.S. states of Alabama, Kentucky, New Jersey, Texas and Wisconsin have filed enforcement actions against the Flamingo Casino Club for allegedly perpetrating a scam through nonfungible tokens (NFTs) tied to a metaverse casino. In a Wednesday announcement, the Alabama Securities Commission, Kentucky Department of Financial Institutions, New Jersey Bureau of Securities, Texas State Securities Board and Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions alleged the Flamingo Casino Club has been “fraudulently soliciting NFTs” it claims are tied to ownership rights of a casino in the metaverse, thereby giving token holders a share of any profits. The organization has allegedly …

A Russian independent news company has raised more than $250,000 in cryptocurrency donations from supporters in order to continue reporting independent news under a barrage of Russian government propaganda and censorship. Meduza, a Latvian-based Russian-language news site that claims to report on “the real Russia, today,” has been asking for donations since April 2021 in the form of United States dollar, euro and cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), BNB, Tether (USDT), Monero (XMR) and Zcash (ZEC). Since publishing their donations plea, the news company has received around $250,000 in crypto donations through 146,000 individual transactions. Around 93% of the …

One of the first punitive measures leveled against Russia in response to the military invasion of Ukraine was the implementation of economic sanctions aimed at isolating the country from the international financial system. On March 12, Russian banks lost access to the international payments and messaging network SWIFT, and private sector payment companies, such as Visa, PayPal and Mastercard, were close behind. But while these highly regulated and publicly scrutinized organizations were quick to react to the crisis, concerns quickly mounted that the Russian state, as well as companies and oligarchs associated with it, could turn to digital currency exchanges …

Shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, the Ukrainian government tweeted a request for funds in the form of Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and Tether (USDT). The total received now stands at more than $60 million, according to Michael Chobanian, founder of Kyiv-based Kuna Exchange and president of the Blockchain Association of Ukraine, who posts regular updates via his Twitter account. Unlike support being pledged by governments around the world, these funds were available to the Ukrainian military within minutes — not weeks. For individuals, cryptocurrencies can provide a potentially life-saving method of escape from crises. A computer programmer …

Bitcoin (BTC) price has been stuck in a falling wedge pattern for the past two months and during this time it has tested the $37,600 support on multiple instances. Adding to this “bearish” price action, BTC is down 16% year-to-date, which is in line with the Russell 2000s performance. The real driver of Bitcoin’s current price action is investors’ concerns about worsening macroeconomic conditions. Professional investors are worried about the impact of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s tightening economic policies and on May 3, billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones said that the environment for investors is worse than ever …

The Binance cryptocurrency exchange is adopting more measures to prevent the Russian government from mitigating the impact of sanctions through the use of crypto. Binance has shut down several accounts tied to relatives of senior Kremlin officials over the past two months since Russia began military action in Ukraine, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. According to the report, the affected persons included Elizaveta Peskova, the daughter of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, and Polina Kovaleva, the stepdaughter of foreign minister Sergei Lavrov. Binance said it had also blocked Kirill Malofeyev, the son of Konstantin Malofeyev, a Russian oligarch who …

Mykhailo Fedorov, Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine and Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, tweeted that the Ukrainian government will accept war effort contributions in the form of nonfungible token (NFT) donations and purchases. Via the official "Aid for Ukraine" crypto fund, individuals can donate cryptocurrency, fiat and now NFTs. So far the initiative has raised over $60 million, according to the website. All funds go toward supplying Ukrainians with weapons, medical gear, medical kits and other expenses outlined on the Aid for Ukraine website. Total expenses amounted to $45,103,538 by April 14. The Aid for Ukraine platform is powered …

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) and the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) have submitted their review notes on the forthcoming “crypto bill,” developed by the country’s Finance Ministry. Law enforcement agencies push for requiring crypto firms to share transaction data with investigators and for clarifying the terms on which digital assets can be seized. On Thursday, local newspaper Izvestia reported on the content of the review notes that the security service and police ministry filed to the Finance Ministry’s draft of the bill “On digital currency.” Some of the propositions were reportedly accepted by the ministry, while others were turned …