Authorities in Russia continue the game of ping pong in regulating cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) even after passing the country’s first crypto law. Russia’s Ministry of Finance has reportedly proposed a set of amendments to the law “On Digital Financial Assets,” or DFA, which bans many operations with crypto. According to local news agency Izvestia, the proposed amendments envision a “blanket ban on any operations with virtual money for individuals and individual entrepreneurs” except for three scenarios. The ministry reportedly wants to ban all crypto transactions except the obtaining of assets through inheritance, bankruptcy and enforcement proceedings. The amendments reportedly …

Coca-Cola Amatil’s corporate venturing platform Amatil X has invested in digital asset and payment provider Centrepay, as part of the startup’s seed funding round. Coca-Cola Amatil, one of the largest bottlers of the Coca-Cola range in the world with over 270 million customers, already had a corporate partnership with Centrepay by allowing users to pay for items with cryptocurrencies on any of the company’s 2,000+ vending machines across Australia and New Zealand. Centrepay is now expanding its payment forms to include contactless fiat, Epay gift cards and vouchers, with Centrepay CEO Jerome Faury stating that both companies are aligned strategically …

Cointelegraph's head of news, Dylan Love, is hosting three guests for a livestream on our YouTube channel about blockchain technology’s impact on the music industry. The event starts right now: check it out above, or head over to our YouTube page to watch it live. It’s increasingly difficult for musical artists to navigate promotion, distribution and getting paid after they record their music, but each of the guests on today’s show run blockchain companies that stand to change a little bit of everything for working musicians today. We are pleased to welcome: Daniel Dewar, the founder and CEO of Paperchain, …

Galaxus, the largest online retailer in Switzerland, could start accepting payments in a stablecoin issued by local cryptocurrency bank Sygnum. According to an Aug. 27 tweet by Sygnum, the companies have just completed an electronic commerce payment using Sygnum Bank’s stablecoin known as Digital Swiss Franc (DCHF). As officially announced, the e-commerce transaction was enabled by Denmark-based crypto payment processor Coinify. Launched in March 2020, Sygnum’s DCHF stablecoin is pegged one-to-one to with the Swiss franc, and intends to eliminate the need for card systems, reduce settlement costs and fraud, as well as provide instant transactions. As previously reported, Sygnum …

BestChange.ru, a major cryptocurrency website in Russia, has got blocked shortly after local lawmakers finally passed the country’s crypto legislation. An aggregator of about 400 local crypto exchange websites, BestChange.ru website was blocked by Russian telecom regulator Roskomnadzor on Aug. 26. The website is still available through the use of VPN services as well as mirror websites like BestChange.net, according to a popup announcement on BestChange.ru. According to an announcement on local social media VK.com, BestChange.ru website was blocked alongside a bunch of other industry sites for “mentions of Bitcoin cryptocurrency." According to public court records cited by BestChange, Roskomnadzor …

Ant Group, the financial affiliate of China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba, has filed an Initial Public Offering, or IPO, in Hong Kong and Shanghai. Created by Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma, Ant Group is targeting a valuation of about $226 billion, based on a target IPO raise of nearly $30 billion, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg on Aug. 25. As reported, the new IPO could become the largest deal in history, potentially overtaking the record set by Saudi Arabian multinational oil and gas giant, Saudi Aramco — which raised around $29.4B earlier this year. According to Bloomberg data, the target …

Cryptocurrency derivatives exchange Bybit has added support for the Japanese yen and South Korean won in a bid to expand its roots in Asian markets. In an announcement on Aug. 26, Bybit said the addition of these two new fiat currency payment options takes the total number of supported fiat currencies to 43. Bybit made a debut with fiat payments in June, allowing traders to buy Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) using 20 different fiat currencies, Bybit CEO Ben Zhou told Cointelegraph. “With the latest update we now offer conversion to BTC, ETH, and USDT from 43 fiat currencies,” he …

Ripple is facing a lawsuit from New Payments Platform Australia (NPPA) — a consortium that includes every significant bank in Australia. While court documents are yet to have been made public, it is believed the suit alleges intellectual property infringement concerning the branding of Ripple’s ‘PayID’ payment standard. The lawsuit was reported by technology journalist Rohan Pearce on August 24, who shared a screenshot indicating that NPP Australia Limited, the operators of Australia’s interbank payments network ‘Pay ID’, had filed a suit with the Federal Court of Australia against Ripple Labs Inc. NPPA’s payment platform is currently used by more …

The United Kingdom Competition and Markets Authority, has given the go-ahead to Visa’s acquisition of fintech startup Plaid following a Phase 1 review. According to an Aug. 24 announcement, the CMA investigated several ways in which the deal could potentially harm competition, but ultimately found no evidence that this outcome was likely. Plaid offers a platform enabling apps to connect to a user's bank accounts. In the U.K. it offers payment initiation services (PIS), which allow direct real-time payments to be made via merchant websites, without use of credit or debit cards. The CMA focused on whether this deal could …

China’s nationwide blockchain project, the Blockchain Service Network, or BSN, will be integrating stablecoin support in 2021. Yifan He, CEO of Red Date Technology, a major tech company involved in the BSN development, told Cointelegraph that the project will soon start integrating stablecoins. Piloted in late 2019, China’s BSN is a state-backed initiative that intends to support medium-sized businesses in building and deploying blockchain applications. The exec explained that stablecoins will be used as payment for various services on the BSN ecosystem, including cloud resources. “Only stablecoins can make it much easier, quicker and safer,” the executive noted. Stablecoins will …

Blockchain-based payment platform Metal has acquired the multifunctional EOSIO platform, Bloks.io. The binding letter for the acquisition was signed earlier this week, Metal representatives told Cointelegraph on Aug. 21. The final amount of the deal was not disclosed. Originally launched as a simple block explorer for EOS (EOS), Bloks.io has expanded into a multi-purpose EOSIO platform supporting various networks like WAX, Telos, Proton and others. According to Metal, Bloks.io had more than 10,000 daily active users at the time of the acquisition. A spokesperson for Metal told Cointelegraph that Bloks.io is the first and only block explorer acquired by the …

As Russia is about to officially ban crypto payments within its borders starting on Jan. 1, 2021, Cointelegraph tracked down some senior executives in the crypto industry to talk about the implications of such a ban. Russia’s primary crypto opponent is Anatoly Aksakov, a member of the State Duma and a key architect of Russia’s crypto ban. In mid-August, Aksakov argued that legalizing crypto payments basically “means the destruction of a financial system.” Speaking to Cointelegraph, major global crypto figures like BitGo CEO Mike Belshe and Binance’s head of operations in Russia and CIS, Gleb Kostarev, concurred that payments in …