Friday, April 16. The week is coming to an end, so we can talk about the most interesting news in the crypto industry for this week.
Russia without Visa and Mastercard, is this possible?
As Western countries continue to impose sanctions on Russia, there is a possibility that a disconnection from global payment systems such as Visa and Mastercard could be an answer, said Dmitry Peskov.
The press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation also added:
“As we see unfriendness and sometimes even hostility towards our country, nothing can be ruled out.”
In his statement, he noted that the Russian payment system “Mir” was well established and would soon be used in the international segment.
Before that, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also announced a possible abandonment of “Western-controlled international payment systems”. He argued that the national economy should be taxed a little bit in favour of national or alternative currencies.
The main strategist of EXANTE Yanis Kivkovlis believes that these sanctions will serve as a tool to make citizens more willing and faster to transition to our payment system “Mir”. He also noted that Europe was also developing its payment system called the “European Payments Initiative”.
It is understandable that all this is done with one basic bias – Russian citizens should stop using world payment systems in favor of domestic ones.
“Sanction policy takes a variety of forms, which also include a form of financial isolation of Russia, by means of disconnection from payment systems” – Yefim Kazantsev, an expert at Moscow Digital School.
Another expert, Mansur Huseynov, argued that such sanctions would not be justified, as the first thing would be dissatisfaction with ordinary people who used to use Visa and Mastercard, and they would only receive a negative response.
Ukraine: Bitcoin wallet addresses and prison sentences for hiding cryptocurrencies
“Virtual Assets of Ukraine” – founded in November 2020, it includes such organizations as Blockchain4Ukraine, Arzinger, Juscutum and also Binance Exchange. They proposed to Alexander Novikov, Head of NAPC (National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption) to change the declaration of virtual currency. They want to rename the word “cryptocurrency” as “virtual assets”, which will begin to cover more digital assets: cryptocurrency, tokens, NFT, stablecoin, DiFi-tokens.
Other representatives suggested that the addresses of the non-customized crypto purses and the data of the purse holders should be included. The purpose of the amendment is to eliminate the laundering of money obtained by illegal means.
On 15 April, a bill was passed to make officials criminally liable for false declarations. In cases where undeclared assets exceed $162,300, a public servant will face two years in prison or a fine.
Gary Gensler became the head of the SEC
“Hearty congratulations to Gary Hensler for being appointed head of the SEC. He will work with a dedicated team that works daily for the benefit of investors and our markets.” Tweet SEC News.
Many will be pleased to learn that the United States Senate has approved President Joe Biden’s proposal for Gary Hensler to chair the commission.
On March 5, in our news digest, we talked about who Gensler is. That his positive thinking about cryptocurrency and industry in general has a positive effect on the state of affairs. He called the main cryptocurrency a catalyst for change that would help modernize the existing financial system and stabilize the world economy.
The new head of the US Securities and Exchange Commission is going to, he said, work to promote innovation.
During the reign of Barack Obama, Gensler served as head of the Board of Urgent Trade. And was a strict regulator.
Coinbase enters IPO
In January of this year, the crypto exchange Coinbase announced its intentions to become a public company.
Coinbase is the oldest United States cryptocurrency exchange. Coinbase’s main goal is to create an open financial system. True, the exchange is actively cooperating with financial regulators, so you can’t trade without proof of identity.
On April 14, the company was listed on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange. The opening price was $381. As a result, the stock market capitalized beyond $100 billion.
Coinbase listed its name in Bitcoin.
By the way, we also talked about coinbase and the IPO in one of the previous digests.
The company’s founding story dates back to 2012, when Airbnb developer Brian Armstrong posted a post on Reddit about cloud Bitcoin wallet. The post was brought to the attention of Fred Ersam, a trader in the investment bank Goldman Sachs, in his free time who liked to trade cryptocurrency. They had a conversation and arranged a personal meeting where Brian asked Fred to become a part owner of the company.