Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a bill into law prohibiting digital financial assets as payments more than a month after it was introduced to the country’s lower chamber of Parliament. In a Thursday update, the Russian State Duma noted that Putin signed a bill suspending certain parts of an existing federal law “on banks and banking activities,” effectively making it illegal for people to use cryptocurrencies to pay for goods and services. The initial draft of the bill from June 7 specified the “prohibition against the introduction of other monetary units or monetary surrogates on the territory of the …

The cryptocurrency market has grown beyond many people’s expectations over the past decade. The nascent industry has managed to change mainstream perception quite significantly, especially in 2021, which saw many traditional financial institutions adopt crypto in one form or another. Some of the biggest public companies such as MicroStrategy started using Bitcoin (BTC) as a treasury hedge, while the likes of PayPal, Mastercard and Visa paved the way for the common public to use crypto as a form of payment. While many experts are still skeptical about the use of crypto as a form of payment, given its price volatility, …

There is an old Arabic proverb: “The dogs bark, but the caravan moves on.” It could summarize the journey to date of Tether (USDT), the world’s largest stablecoin. Tether has been embroiled in legal and financial wrangling through much of its short history. There have been lawsuits over alleged market manipulation, charges by the New York State attorney general that Tether lied about its reserves — costing the firm $18.5 million in fines in 2021 — and this year, questions voiced by United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen as to whether USDT could maintain its peg to the U.S. dollar. …

A lot has happened in the Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrency markets since our last edition of VC Roundup. The monumental collapse of the Terra ecosystem spilled over into other segments of the digital asset market, exposing over-leveraged traders, lending platforms and venture capital funds. In the process, Bitcoin’s price plumbed new lows, falling below the previous cycle’s peak for the first time in its history. Despite macro headwinds inflicting pain on the crypto markets, venture capital firms are still investing in the industry’s most promising startups. The latest edition of VC Roundup highlights funding deals for digital asset infrastructure providers, …

By the end of May, Bitcoin’s (BTC) price had dropped 40%, Ether (ETH) had lost 50% of its value, and the entire crypto market dipped below its $1-trillion capitalization for the first time since January 2021. As we enter a clear bear market trend, it’s essential to focus on what the blockchain industry has always suggested: build. Bitcoin, Ether and the broader crypto market’s downturn correlate to macroeconomic uncertainty. The uncertainty is driven by rising interest rates coupled with quantitative tightening, resulting in asset price sell-offs across the stock exchange and the crypto market. It’s entirely possible that we can …

Much to the chagrin of cryptocurrency investors across the ecosystem, the bear market has officially set in and brought with it devastating price collapses that have left relatively few unscathed. As the popular topic of conversation now centers on bearish predictions of how low Bitcoin (BTC) will go and how long this iteration of the crypto winter will last, those with more experience on the matter know that it’s virtually impossible to predict the bottom and it would be wise to apply those energies elsewhere. Instead of focusing on the when of the end, perhaps it’s more constructive to explore …

Banking Circle, a European bank focused on cross-border payments, is adopting a major U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin for payment rails. The firm officially announced on Friday the adoption of the USD Coin (USDC) on its platform as a payment acceptance, processing and settlement method. The new payment feature is enabled as part of Banking Circle’s new service targeting banks and payment providers, allowing them to facilitate payments outside traditional bank rails. Coinbase, a major cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, will be one of the crypto liquidity providers for Bank Circle, the announcement notes. The USDC adoption by Banking Circle is …

A Bitcoin (BTC) experiment on the Isle of Man involving the Lightning Network, 25 schoolchildren and the promise of a milkshake has yielded interesting results. At Willaston School on the Isle of Man (a British Crown Dependency nestled between the United Kingdom and Ireland), 25 6-year-old students, one teacher and one teaching assistant participated in the light-hearted Bitcoin study. MSW, a data analyst at CoinCorner, told Cointelegraph that he visited the school to discuss job opportunities and to inspire the kids, discussing his own career path, which spans nuclear reactor study, data analytics and now, Bitcoin. Inevitably, the talk delved …

Elon Musk’s tunnel construction firm The Boring Company (TBC) has begun allowing customers to pay for rides on its Las Vegas transit system using Dogecoin (DOGE) A Wednesday report from CNBC said the new payment option via BitPay surfaced on July 1, a day after the opening of its new Loop station at the Las Vegas Convention Center. While The Boring Company has not officially confirmed the new payment method, founder Elon Musk seemingly did when he responded to a tweet about the news, saying: “Supporting Doge wherever possible.” Supporting Doge wherever possible — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 6, 2022 …

Salvadorans living abroad hsent over $50 million in remittances from January to May this year, according to the El Salvador Central Reserve Bank. Douglas Rodríguez, president of the El Salvador central bank, unpacked the general economic outlook for the country on the local television news program Frente a Frente on Wednesday. A major takeaway was the $52 million of remittances processed by national digital wallet service Chivo through the first five months of the year. This marks a 3.9%, $118 million increase in value when compared to the same period in 2021. Chivo was launched in September 2021 as the …

While the market goes steady, the crypto ecosystem continues to grow as merchants innovate and adopt cryptocurrency payments in their quest to gain new customers. Data platform PYMNTS collaborated with Bitpay to survey merchants, in an attempt to understand the trends on what participants expect from digital currencies and their effect on payments and businesses. In the report titled "Paying With Cryptocurrency," the researchers found that among businesses with an annual income of $1 billion, 85% are adopting crypto payments to find and gain new customers. On the other hand, 82% of all the merchants who participated in the survey …

United Kingdom regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), has recruited almost 500 additional staff members this year as part of its new three-year strategy. Among the new hires are six directors, whose appointments were announced Tuesday. Two of them come from backgrounds in policing. Director of payments and digital assets is a newly created position that will oversee the e-money, payment and crypto-asset markets and related policy development. Matthew Long was appointed to that post, moving over from the National Crime Agency, where he is now a director in the National Economic Crime Command. Long has also led the U.K. …