Full Ban on Crypto in Russia Would Be Counterproductive, Rosfinmonitoring Says

Russian citizens and businesses already own cryptocurrencies, which is why a complete crypto ban would be counterproductive, according to a top executive of Rosfinmonitoring, Russia’s financial intelligence agency. At the same time, the regulator supports prohibiting payments with digital coins and…

The Size of Bitcoin’s Distributed Ledger Nears a Half Terabyte

Well over a decade ago, on January 3, 2009, the size of the Bitcoin blockchain was 0.285 kilobytes (kB) or around 285 bytes. Today, however, the blockchain’s ledger is nearly half a terabyte, or roughly 432 gigabytes. Bitcoin’s Blockchain Nears 500…

Hackers Offer to Sell Belarus President Lukashenko’s Passport as NFT

Anti-government hackers have attempted to sell what they say is an NFT of Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko’s passport. The members of the ‘Belarusian Cyber Partisans’ collective claim to have obtained the passport data of all of the country’s citizens. Cyber Guerrillas…

Bank of Russia Aims for Full Launch of Digital Ruble in 2024

The Central Bank of Russia plans to begin the comprehensive implementation of the digital ruble two years from now, according to a paper detailing its monetary policy priorities for the 2023 – 2025 period. As the development of the state-issued digital…

Russian Bankers Suggest Criminalizing Crypto Storage in Non-Custodial Wallets

Keeping cryptocurrencies in non-custodial wallets may be criminalized in Russia, if authorities accept a proposal from the trade association representing Russian banks. While financial regulators think the idea deserves attention, lawmakers and experts doubt it’s possible to implement such a measure….

12 Companies Keep Close to $700 Million in Ethereum in Treasuries

During the last year, there’s been a lot of discussion concerning bitcoin treasuries or public firms putting bitcoin on their balance sheets. However, the leading crypto asset by market valuation is not the only digital currency being held by treasuries. Ethereum…

Strike Arrives in Argentina With USDT Support, No Bitcoin Integration Yet

Strike, a bitcoin-based wallet and exchange service, has landed in Argentina, bringing USDT integration to users in the country. Jack Mallers, CEO of Strike, explained that his objective for bringing the app to the country has to do with providing a…

Bitcoin Treasuries List Claims 59 Companies and a Handful of Countries Hold 1.49 Million BTC

304 days or roughly nine months ago, 42 companies held bitcoin on their balance sheet with an aggregate total of 1,350,073 bitcoin on March 1, 2021. Today, metrics indicate there are 59 companies, a few countries, and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) with…

Ethereum Co-Founder Vitalik Buterin Publishes ‘Plausible Roadmap’ Addressing Scalability

In recent times the Ethereum network has received a lot of criticism about the protocol’s data transfer fees and scalability. In a blog post called “Endgame,” published on December 6, the co-founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin discussed plans to improve scaling,…