In her monthly Expert Take column, Selva Ozelli, an international tax attorney and CPA, covers the intersection between emerging technologies and sustainability, and provides the latest developments around taxes, AML/CFT regulations and legal issues affecting crypto and blockchain. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, also known as the UN Refugee Agency, nearly 4 million Ukrainians have fled their homes since bombs began falling and bullets started flying on Feb. 24, with most heading to neighboring Central European countries. At the same time, people around the world have sent over $100 million in crypto donations to support Ukraine, …

In a July 2021 interview, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren likened crypto regulation to the drug regulation initiatives of a century ago, which she claimed put an end to the sale of “snake oil” and laid the basis for the creation of the modern drug industry. This reflected her earlier statements about the digital currency market resembling the “Wild West,” which makes it a poor investment as well as an “environmental disaster.” With her latest bill in the Senate pipeline targeting Russian actors’ potential use of crypto to circumvent United States sanctions, it is fair to ask: Is the military conflict …

A senior official from the Bank of Japan (BOJ) has warned G7 nations that a common framework for regulating digital currencies needs to be put in place as quickly as possible. G7 refers to the Group of Seven, an inter-governmental political forum made up of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. The statement comes in response to the continued conflict between Russia and Ukraine, as cryptocurrencies and their potential applications for skirting economic sanctions falls under increasing scrutiny. The head of the BOJ's payment systems department, Kazushige Kamiyama, told Reuters that using stablecoins makes …

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 …

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 …

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 March 17. 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 March 16, directs them to pay closer attention to the instances of their clients’ “unusual behavior.” This includes “abnormal” transactional activity and uncommon expenditures patterns. Any …

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 …

Industry experts and lawmakers who spoke at a hearing of the United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs clashed on how the country should handle digital assets used for illicit purposes. Speaking remotely in a Thursday hearing on “Understanding the Role of Digital Assets in Illicit Finance”, Michael Chobanian, the founder of Kuna crypto exchange and President of Blockchain Association of Ukraine, called out Binance. He claimed the crypto exchange was “still working with the ruble” and implied the firm was not in compliance with current sanctions against Russia, which has engaged in a military invasion of …

As pointed out by Caroline Malcolm, Head of International Policy at Chainalysis, the transparent nature of blockchain technology makes it relatively easy for crypto intelligence companies to track funds related to sanctioned entities. “We're in quite a unique position because of the transparency and the permanency and the immutability of that public record”, explained Malcolm in an exclusive Cointelegraph interview. Governments around the world have expressed concerns that Russia could use crypto to evade sanctions imposed as a response to its military offensive against Ukraine. Addressing those concerns, Malcolm pointed out that in the last few years there has been …

In January 2022, the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) proposed a number of measures aimed at curtailing the country’s cryptocurrency market, which included a blanket ban on the use and mining of all cryptocurrencies. It pointed out risks posed by the volatile nature of cryptocurrencies to the financial stability of the country, the extensive use of crypto in illegal activity and the energy costs involved in crypto mining. However, the utility of blockchain technology didn’t escape the CBR. The following month, it announced that it had started the pilot stage of the digital ruble, its planned central bank digital currency …

Internet Computer (ICP) and DFINITY founder Dominic Williams has conjured up an oddball plan to speed up the end of the Russian invasion of Ukraine via smart contracts and $250 million worth of crypto rewards. DFINITY’s Internet Computer was launched in May 2021 and is a public blockchain and protocol that’s trying to decentralize the internet. Williams' March 16 proposal is focused on countering propaganda, and informing the Russian population — who he suggests are in general “completely ignorant” — on the reality of what is actually taking place in Ukraine, which will then, in turn, spur them on to …

In his monthly crypto tech column, Israeli serial entrepreneur Ariel Shapira covers emerging technologies within the crypto, decentralized finance and blockchain space, as well as their roles in shaping the economy of the 21st century. Economic warfare can’t be separated from geopolitical conflict, and just like in the violence of physical war, innocent civilians often fall in the crosshairs. The advent of cryptocurrency, however, is slightly transforming the dynamic this time around. As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sends shockwaves across the global markets, many are championing digital assets as a safe haven during destruction and unrest. Indeed, Russians and Ukrainians …