Russia
Netflix Disconnects from Russia
Netflix is the latest media company to pull out of Russia in the wake of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. “Given the circumstances on the ground, we have decided to suspend our service in Russia,” a spokesperson for Netflix said on Sunday. Previously, Netflix announced that it would ignore a Russian law requiring media platforms to carry state propaganda channels. Now, the streamer has decided to forgo operations in Russia outright, effectively disconnecting with its nearly one million subscribers based in the country. Advertisement Related Video Netflix is but the latest corporation to cut ties with Russia. Both Live Nation and Spotify separately announced their plans to indefinitely cease conducting business in the country, while Apple paused the sales of its products. Facebook is a...
Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher Pledge $3 Million Donation to Aid Ukrainian Refugees
Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher have agreed to match up to $3 million in donations toward humanitarian aid for Kunis’ native Ukraine, the couple announced in a social media post this week. The two actors have started a GoFundMe to provide housing and relief supplies to refugees of Ukraine following the ongoing invasion by Russia. “I have always considered myself an American, a proud American,” Kunis, who immigrated from Ukraine to the US in 1991, said in the clip. “But today, I have never been more proud to be a Ukrainian. The events that have unfolded in Ukraine are devastating. There is no place in this world for this kind of unjust attack on humanity.” Kunis and Kutcher’s GoFundMe benefits Flexport.org, an organization that sends shipments of supplies to various refugee sites, as well as ...
Institutions increase exposure to Grayscale Bitcoin Trust as GBTC discount nears 30%
Institutional investors are returning to accumulate Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) shares as the discount to spot price his risen to nearly 30%, data on Glassnode shows. Since December 2021, some weekly sessions saw investors pouring in between $10 million and $120 million into Grayscale’s flagship fund. Meanwhile, the biggest capital inflow — amounting to nearly $140 million — appeared in the week ending on Feb. 25, as shown in the chart below. Institutional Grayscale Investments since September 2021. Source: Glassnode No selloff yet among high-profile GBTC backers The GBTC trust attracted investments as global markets faced back-to-back shocks in the past few months, including a dramatic selloff in the technology stocks, followed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that left many...
Institutions increase exposure to Grayscale Bitcoin Trust as GBTC discount nears 30%
Institutional investors are returning to accumulate Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) shares as the discount to spot price his risen to nearly 30%, data on Glassnode shows. Since December 2021, some weekly sessions saw investors pouring in between $10 million and $120 million into Grayscale’s flagship fund. Meanwhile, the biggest capital inflow — amounting to nearly $140 million — appeared in the week ending on Feb. 25, as shown in the chart below. Institutional Grayscale Investments since September 2021. Source: Glassnode No selloff yet among high-profile GBTC backers The GBTC trust attracted investments as global markets faced back-to-back shocks in the past few months, including a dramatic selloff in the technology stocks, followed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that left many...
WNBA Star Brittney Griner Held On Drug Charges In Russia
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Mike Mattina / Getty Reports are coming forth that WNBA star Brittney Griner is currently detained in Russia on drug smuggling charges. Officials say they discovered vaporizer cartridges containing THC oil in Griner’s luggage. Two Russian language outlets, Interfax News and Sport BC, both report that Griner, 31, was arrested by Russian Federal Customs Service officials at Sheremetyevo Airport near Moscow. The authorities reportedly found the vape cartridges containing cannabis oil after drug-sniffing dogs discovered the goods. Related Stories The arrest took place at some point in February but the exact date isn’t known. Griner has not shared posts on social media since early last month. However, the Customs Service issued a press statement saying that it...
CEXs refuse blanket asset freeze of all Russian users, though questions linger
Centralized exchanges (CEX) and CEOs from companies such as Binance, Coinbase and Kraken have all stated they would only freeze the assets of Russian clients specifically targeted by Western sanctions — not that of everyday Russian users. A few days prior, Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s minister of digital transformation, had called for “all major crypto exchanges to block [wallet] addresses of Russians” and “also to sabotage ordinary users [by freezing their assets].” In explaining why he was not preemptively banning all Russians (though, Coinbase is not available in Russia), Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, specifically wrote: “We believe everyone deserves access to basic financial services unless the law says otherwise. Some ordinary Russians are using crypto as a lifeline...
Ukraine finds unlikely ally in efforts to bar Russian access to crypto: The Central Bank of Russia
Recently, Ukraine has called for “sabotage” of everyday Russians’ crypto assets due to an ongoing war between the two countries. Among many, its European allies have also voiced mounting concerns that Russia may use crypto to bypass Western sanctions. But ironically, it appears that one of the greatest proponents of barring everyday Russians and financial institutions from accessing cryptocurrencies is actually the Central Bank of Russia, or CBR, itself. As reported by local news outlet tass.ru on Thursday, the CBR continues to adhere to its position of proposing to ban the issuance, mining, and circulation of cryptocurrencies in the Russian Federation. A CBR official stated: “The Central Bank currently supports the position that was previously announced ...
Russia Blocks Access to Facebook
Russia plans to ban Facebook within the country, according to a statement by Russian communications regulator Roskomnadzo. Facebook had refused to comply with Russia’s demand that it stop fact-checking state media. Roskomnadzo’s statement (translated via The Verge) cites 26 cases of “discrimination against Russian media and information resources by Facebook” since October 2020. It also accused the social media platform of violating federal law by restricting access to state media outlets. This news arrives on the heels of Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Since the war broke out last week, fleets of Russians have gathered in the streets to protest the invasion, and thousands have been arrested. While President Vladimir Putin has denied plans to institute martial law, the regi...
Russian national will use sales of her burning passport NFT to support Ukraine
Olive Allen, a Russian national and artist who has lived in the United States for more than 11 years, has burned her mother country’s passport in the hopes of raising awareness and funds related to the military conflict in Ukraine. Speaking to Cointelegraph on Friday, Allen described herself as “a child of new Russia” and said the country would always be a part of her identity, but she had chosen to cut ties with it based on its recent actions in the Ukraine. Standing in front of the Consulate General of the Russian Federation in New York City, Allen burned her Russian passport — which she said was the only copy she had — and planned to auction the video as a nonfungible token (NFT), with the proceeds going to humanitarian efforts in Ukraine. “I do not consider Putin’s Russia my home...
Russian crypto volume across major exchanges plunges by 50%
Data from blockchain-analysis firms show that Russian denominated crypto purchasing and trading on major exchanges have faltered, debunking theories that the country will pivot to digital assets to circumvent sanctions. When Bitcoin rallied over 15% last week, some industry experts attributed the surge to Russians buying cryptocurrency in the face of increasing economic sanctions. This theory seems to be proved false, however, as data from Chainalysis showed that ruble-denominated crypto trading volume was just $34.1 million on March 3, around half of a recent peak of $70.7 million a week ago on Feb. 24. Speaking on the matter of sanctions-fueled crypto purchasing to Bloomberg, Citigroup analyst Alexander Saunders said, “Russian volumes have been relatively small so far, suggesting t...
Ukraine DAO raises over $6M via NFT sale to aid Ukrainian citizens
UkraineDAO, the decentralized autonomous organization created by Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova, Trippy Labs and PleasrDAO members, crowdfunded 2188 ETH, or $6.1 million, for a 1/1 Ukrainian flag NFT. Proceeds will go to nonprofit organizations in Ukraine that are helping those affected by the Russian invasion. The NFT sale was hosted as a PartyBid auction, allowing people to pool resources and bid collectively for fractionalized ownership of the digital Ukrainian flag. Contributors will receive ERC-20 tokens in the form of LOVE tokens depending on the donation amount. At the time of writing, the NFT has not been fractionalized and the funds have not yet been distributed. 1- $LOVE TLDR (and thread) ✅ Funds (over $6M / 2100ETH) safu in the ukrainedao.eth multisig...
Anti-war Russians start donating crypto to support Ukraine
While the West is growing increasingly concerned over Russia’s potential use of cryptocurrencies to evade sanctions, some Russians are using their Bitcoin (BTC) to help Ukrainian people. Pavel Muntyan, a renowned Russian animation producer and creator of the animated web series “Mr. Freeman,” has called on anti-war Russians to support Ukrainian citizens amid Russia’s ongoing military attack on the country. Muntyan took to Twitter on Tuesday to announce the opening of a cryptocurrency donation address for Russians who want to support Ukrainian people anonymously as Russia has banned its citizens from helping people in Ukraine. On Feb. 27, Russia’s General Prosecutor’s Office officially warned that any assistance to Ukrainians amid Russia’s “special operation” in the country would be conside...
