Regulation by enforcement, a fast and economical substitute for thorough rulemaking, is widely regarded as some of the U.S. executive agencies’ preeminent approach to crypto regulation. It could be summed up as letting crypto firms explore the boundaries of what is permissible by themselves and then punishing industry participants in case their exploratory actions come to look like a transgression. Others will take heed and learn from the explorer’s negative experience. While it is the United States Securities and Exchange Commission that gets accused of over-reliance on regulation by enforcement most frequently, other federal agencies do that as well. Last …

Major crypto exchange Binance challenged the accuracy of a report, which stated one of its regional heads agreed to supply Russia's financial intelligence unit with customer data potentially related to donations for anti-corruption and anti-Putin activist Alexei Navalny. Reuters reported on Friday that Binance's head of Eastern Europe and Russia Gleb Kostarev met with officials from Russia's Rosfinmonitoring, a financial monitoring service linked to the country's Federal Security Service, or FSB, in April 2021. Kostarev reportedly agreed to a request from the government body to turn over certain user data — including names and addresses — later telling an associate …

Elvira Nabiullina, governor of the Bank of Russia, has admitted that Russia’s central bank might have taken a bit too tough a stance on digital assets and should look to reconsider that. On Thursday, the Russian State Duma reappointed Nabiullina as Bank of Russia governor, marking the third time for her to take the post since she started serving in the position back in 2013. At the official Duma session, Nabiullina talked about many measures that Russia has been taking and is planning to adopt in order to help the government mitigate the impact of massive Western sanctions against the …

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume, is adopting major restrictions on users in Russia following the European Union’s fifth package of sanctions against Russia. Binance officially announced Thursday new limitations for Russian nationals or residents of Russia, restricting such persons from trading if they hold over 10,000 euros, or $10,800. Restricted accounts are no longer able to deposit or trade using Binance’s spot, futures and custody wallets, as well as staked and earned deposits. The restriction relates to Russian nationals, natural persons residing in Russia and legal entities based in Russia, the announcement notes, adding: “Accounts for Russian …

The United States Treasury Department has added Russia-based crypto mining services provider BitRiver and several subsidiaries as firms facilitating the evasion of sanctions. In a Wednesday announcement, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, said it was taking action against BitRiver AG, as well as 10 of its Russia-based subsidiaries, naming the companies as “Specially Designated Nationals.” Firms and individuals listed as such by OFAC have their assets blocked and “U.S. persons are generally prohibited from dealing with them.” According to the U.S. Treasury, the actions against BitRiver and its subsidiaries were based on them allegedly facilitating …

Many Ukraine-based businesses have had to shutter or suspend operations following the outbreak of the conflict with Russia on Feb. 24, but some in the cryptocurrency space have been able to keep running, albeit with many staff in bomb shelters, scattered across the world and facing an uncertain future. Speaking to Cointelegraph, Arsenii Hurtavtsov, a Ukrainian national and CEO of nonfungible token service provider Finch, said he managed to get on one of the last flights from Kyiv to Azerbaijan on Feb. 23 before the country began blocking many men from leaving, likely in anticipation of needing individuals for the …

Russia's Federal Tax Service (FTS) has joined the debate around crypto regulation in Russia with an unexpectedly blunt proposition — to let Russian companies use digital currencies as a payment method when transacting internationally. On Wednesday, local newspaper Izvestia reported that the FTS left its official feedback on the draft of the crypto bill prepared by the Ministry of Finance. In its remarks, the fiscal agency proposed to let Russian companies use crypto for certain operations: “To let corporate entities pay for goods and services according to foreign trade contracts and to receive revenue from foreign entities in digital currency.” …

In the last few months, the standoff between the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) and the country’s Ministry of Finance over crypto regulation has become the key regulatory plot for the Russian crypto community to follow. Simultaneously, however, another important legislative development has been unfolding somewhat under the radar: negotiations around tax code amendments that would make cryptocurrencies a taxable asset class. Here’s how it went down so far. 13% for individuals and 20% for companies As the head of the State Duma’s (the lower chamber of Russian Parliament) financial markets committee, Anatoly Aksakov told local media on April 7 …

London-based cryptocurrency exchange Exmo is the latest crypto trading platform to formally suspend its business in Russia and Belarus due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Exmo is selling its digital asset business in Russia and Belarus to a Russia-based software development company, which Exmo officially announced on Monday. At the time of writing, the new owner and the size of the deal are not disclosed. “Unfortunately, we can’t anymore hold the high-risk part of the business, since a global group does not want to put the global expansion plans at any risk by keeping such high-risk markets in its structure,” …

Major developer platform GitHub has reportedly blocked more than a dozen accounts of Russian developers associated with organizations sanctioned by the United States government. The sanctioned accounts include some of the largest banks in Russia — Sberbank and Alfa-Bank — alongside individual developers with links to the sanctioned firms. However, many individual accounts with no links or ties to sanctioned firms were also blocked in the process. Researcher Sergey Bobrov, who reportedly has no current links to any such firm, claimed on April 15 that his account was suspended and then restored. My github account is unlocked, thanks everyone. The …

A major Russian banking association wants to criminalize keeping your own cryptocurrency keys. The Association of Banks of Russia, an organization that includes more than 300 Russian banks and financial institutions, has called on lawmakers to criminalize storing crypto outside of centralized exchanges on noncustodial wallets, local news agency Izvestia reported on Monday. In contrast to accounts at centralized crypto exchanges, noncustodial or self-custodial wallets allow users to store crypto without relying on a third party that is able to freeze, block or seize the user's crypto assets. This essentially enables investors to “be their own bank” by getting full …

The Ministry of Finance (MinFin) of Russia finalized a draft bill named “On Digital Currency” and has sent it to the Russian government for approval to be passed as law. The draft of the federal law clarifies regulations related to the trading and mining of cryptocurrencies. On Apr. 8, Russia’s finance ministry announced the amendment and finalization of an impending crypto bill, which provides regulatory clarity related to the circulation, issuance, trading, mining and other activities within the crypto market. While unconfirmed reports of Russia legalizing cryptocurrency surfaced early Apr 16, the thriving crypto community on Twitter welcomed the announcement …