Russia
US sanctions Russia’s largest darknet market and crypto exchange Garantex
The United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has announced it will impose sanctions on darknet market Hydra and virtual currency exchange Garantex. In a Tuesday announcement, the Treasury Department said it had worked with the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigations, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation and Homeland Security Investigations to sanction the Russia-based darknet marketplace as well as Garantex. The move from the U.S. government agencies came the same day the German Federal Criminal Police announced it had shut down Hydra’s servers in Germany and seized more than $25 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC) connected to the marketplace. Illegaler #Darknet-Marktplatz „Hydra Market“ ...
2022 Grammys: President Zelenskyy Says, “Our Musicians Wear Body Armor Instead of Tuxedos”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the Recording Academy at the 2022 Grammys, reminding the international audience that since Russia’s brutal and unprovoked invasion, “Our musicians wear body armor instead of tuxedos.” Before becoming the face of the Ukrainian resistance, Zelenskyy was a professional actor, writer, and comedian, and last week he pressed the Oscars to allow him to appear. Via The New York Times they balked, telling one of the organizers of the attempted cameo that, “They don’t want to overly politicize the show.” Where the Academy Awards showed a concern for politics, the Recording Academy came through. Zelenskyy appeared in a pre-taped video, speaking as fluently in English as he has often spoken in Ukrainian and Russian. He said, “The war. Wh...
Russia seeks to eliminate the ‘legal vacuum’ around crypto mining
Russia’s deputy minister for energy, Evgeny Grabchak. proposes the regulation of crypto mining He also advocates for regional authorities to manage mining activities – energy quotas and allocation of sites The discourse around Russia and cryptocurrencies is slowly turning into a never-ending affair. Various matters have come up, from the proposition to ban crypto before the Ukraine invasion to the role of crypto in evading sanctions and, most recently, the introduction of Bitcoin as an option for countries to pay for Russian oil exports. Now, according to a report published by a local news agency Tass, the deputy minister of energy Evgeny Grabchak is proposing introducing a regulatory framework around cryptocurrencies. Regional authorities should determine the location of sites for m...
Japan plans to tighten crypto exchange regulation to enforce sanctions
Japan plans to amend its Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act to bring crypto exchanges under the purview of laws that govern banks, a government official revealed on Monday. The proposed amendment is being carried out to prevent sanctioned countries from taking evasive actions using digital assets. Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno in a press conference said that the government is planning to introduce a bill to revise the Foreign exchange laws to include crypto exchanges. Fumio Kishida, the newly elected prime minister of the country, also supported the proposed revision and called for coordinated moves with Western allies to enforce the new laws. Under the revised foreign exchange laws, crypto exchanges, just like banks, will be required to verify and flag transactions ass...
Russia is looking towards Bitcoin as a payment form for energy exports
Energy official Pavel Zavalny says Russia has lost all interest in the Euro and dollar On Wednesday, President Putin demanded that all unfriendlies must pay for Russian energy exports in the ruble Recent reports suggest that Moscow is exploring ways to save its economy and get it back on track amidst heavy sanctions from the west. The country is now leveraging one of its most valuable exports – gas. Russia already made it a requirement that all non-friendly nations seeking to buy gas from it must pay in the Russian ruble, while friendlies like China and Turkey can pay in their fiat currencies or the ruble. Bitcoin as an option for the ‘allies’ According to a top government official, the nation is open to accepting Bitcoin as payment for oil and gas exports. Chairman of the Stat...
Digital currencies could get a boost from the international crisis: Blackrock CEO
Larry Fink, the CEO of the world’s largest asset manager BlackRock, believes the ongoing Russia – Ukraine crisis has boosted the case for digital currencies as a tool of settlement for international transactions. In a shareholders letter, Fink noted that the ongoing war would force nations to reassess their currency dependencies which could eventually make way for a global digital payment network, reported Reuters He said the war has put an end to the globalization forces at work over the past 30 years. Fink’s observation about the boost in the digital currency market is quite spot on, as trade sanctions on Russia have already led many countries that import oil and gas from them to look for alternate payment networks beyond centralized SWIFT. India is reportedly developing a direct I...
Crypto trading in rubles falls even as ECB warns again on sanctions
The President of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde has reiterated warnings that Russian individuals and businesses are using cryptocurrencies to skirt sanctions. However, as of March 18, daily ruble-denominated crypto trading volume was sitting at just $7.4 million, down over 50% from recent figures and a peak of $70 million on March 7, according to data from Chainalysis. This amount represents a tiny slither of the total global crypto market volume, with Bitcoin’s total daily volume generally fluctuating between $20 billion and $40 billion. In a presentation at the Bank for International Settlements Innovation Summit on Tuesday, the crypto skeptic Lagarde said that European financial authorities had seen the “volumes of rubles into stable, into cryptos, at the moment [is at] th...
Evidence doesn’t back claims of Russia using crypto to evade sanctions, says Chainalysis CEO
Chainalysis chief Jonathan Levin has said there’s no evidence of ‘systemic’ use of crypto to skirt sanctions The CEO also explained how Chainalysis’ recently-released sanctions compliance tools enable businesses to screen for interaction with sanctioned addresses Amid the ongoing invasion of Ukraine by the Kremlin, the question of whether cryptocurrencies could be used to evade economic sanctions has been up for debate. Blockchain tracking and analytics firm Chainalysis CEO and co-founder Jonathan Levin has given his opinion on the matter in a recent interview with Bloomberg Technology. Levin spoke to Emily Chang and Sonali Basak about the new free sanctions screening tools recently announced by Chainalysis. He explained that the tools are meant to help organisations and businesses ensure ...
Ukrainian President Zelensky Thanks Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher for Raising $35 Million in Aid
In just over two weeks, Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher have raised a whopping $35 million to provide humanitarian aid to refugees of Ukraine following the ongoing invasion by Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently hopped on Zoom with the couple to express his gratitude for the couple’s efforts, while also sharing a snapshot of the call on social media. “.@aplusk & Mila Kunis were among the first to respond to our grief,” Zelensky wrote on Twitter. “They have already raised $35 million & are sending it to @flexport & @Airbnb to help [Ukrainian] refugees. Grateful for their support. Impressed by their determination. They inspire the world.” Earlier this month, Kunis (who immigrated from Ukraine to the US in 1991) and her husband started a ...
Amid conflict, NFT projects already seek to rebuild Ukraine
The recent invasion of Ukraine has put the world in a state of uncertainty, turmoil and geopolitical risk. Volatility in the global financial markets has caused immense losses to millions of investors. With rising global inflation, fear of tapering liquidity, and increasing interest rates by the United States Federal Reserve, havoc is spreading across the global economy. Additionally, the delinking of SWIFT messaging services for leading Russian banks is causing concern among entrepreneurs in the nation while also impacting other economies with strong Russian trade ties. With Visa and Mastercard halting their Russian operations, there will be further untold consequences for the interoperability of their payment systems and the everyday citizens who rely on them. Amid all these uncert...
Central Bank of Russia tightens P2P transactions monitoring, including those in crypto
The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) recommended that the nation’s commercial banks ramp up monitoring users’ transactions that could be aimed at circumventing CBR’s “special economic measures to counter the outflow of foreign currency abroad,” local media reported on Thursday. The recommendation includes closer oversight over crypto trading, which is named among the vehicles for withdrawing capital from Russia. The letter, sent to the banking organizations by CBR’s vice chairman Yuri Isaev on Wednesday, directs them to pay closer attention to the instances of their clients’ “unusual behavior.” This includes “abnormal” transactional activity and uncommon patterns of expenditures. Any withdrawals of money via digital currencies should also attract increased attention, the letter spec...
US lawmakers introduce bills that could force crypto exchanges to cut ties with Russian wallets
Representative Brad Sherman will be introducing a bill in the House aimed at cracking down on U.S. businesses handling crypto transactions for Russian banks and individuals. Speaking at a hybrid markup meeting with the House Financial Services Committee on Thursday, Sherman said he will be introducing a companion bill to Senator Elizabeth Warren’s legislation that would give the Biden administration “explicit authority to require that crypto exchanges that are subject to U.S. law stop facilitating transactions with Russian-based crypto wallets.” Warren first announced the legislation on March 8, later saying during a Senate Banking Committee hearing she will be introducing the bill on Thursday. Neither bill’s text is available through congressional records at the time of publication....
