Crypto Exchange Binance Joins Expert Center at Russian Banks Association

February 19, 2022 Bitcoin.com

Iran to Pilot ‘National Cryptocurrency,’ Considers Blockchain Tech for Stock Market

January 22, 2022 Bitcoin.com

BitMEX execs reveal EU expansion with German bank acquisition

January 18, 2022 Coin Telegraph

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Founded by BitMEX execs, BXM Operations plans to expand its services in Europe through the acquisition of the German bank Bankhaus von der Heydt.

Founded by BitMEX Group CEO Alexander Höptner and chief financial officer Stephan Lutz, BXM Operations AG announced Tuesday its plans to acquire Bankhaus von der Heydt, one of the oldest banks in Europe, to create a regulated crypto one-stop-shop in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Dietrich von Boetticher, the owner of the German bank, and BXM have already signed a purchase agreement. However, it still requires the approval of BaFin, the German financial services regulatory authority. The purchase is expected to be complete by mid-2022.

According to the announcement, the company’s objective is to expand its operations in Europe. Following the launch of brokerage service BitMEX Link in Switzerland, the acquisition of Bankhaus von der Heydt aims to make room for more product development and reach expansion for BitMEX.

BitMEX CEO Alexander Höptner says that a mixture of the digital asset expertise of Bankhaus von der Heydt and the innovation and scale of BitMEX may lead to great things. “I believe we can create a regulated crypto products powerhouse in the heart of Europe,” he said.

BitMEX CFO Stephan Lutz also shared his thoughts about Germany. According to Lutz, Germany, being the largest economy in Europe, makes it a great market for BitMEX’s Europe expansion.

Other crypto exchanges are also announcing their entry to Europe. Mercado Bitcoin operator Brazilian 2TM Group recently announced its entry to Portugal. The exchange revealed their acquisition of a controlling stake in CriptoLoja, a crypto exchange licensed by Portugal’s central bank.

Meanwhile, other firms are also making a push to expand the crypto ecosystem. Gemini exchange also recently announced that it will acquire Bitria, a San Fransisco-based start-up. The firm will integrate several features created by Bitria into its exchange.

70% of Jamaica population to adopt CBDC in 5 years, prime minister says

January 17, 2022 Coin Telegraph

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The Caribbean country expects a nationwide CBDC rollout by the end of the first quarter of 2022.

Central bank digital currency (CBDC) evolved into a hot topic in Jamaica when the country’s central bank successfully completed the first pilot test in early January.

Following the tests, the country's prime minister, Andrew Holness, has spoken confidently about CBDC adoption in the country.

Holness has predicted the majority of the Jamaican population would be quick to adopt the digital currency, with over 70% using the CBDC within five years. The Jamaican prime minister highlighted reduced banking costs and inclusivity of CBDC in a Bloomberg interview, adding that digital currency would ensure greater government accountability thanks to easier public resources tracking.

While admitting the initial challenges of a nationwide CBDC launch, which is aimed for the first quarter of 2022, Holness added that the government has to “figure out how to give people access to digital devices and the internet in general.”

The Bank of Jamaica, the country’s central bank, has become a pioneer in CBDC efforts with one of the first completed nationwide pilot projects in the world. After partnering with the Irish cryptography firm eCurrency Mint in March 2021, the central bank has conducted an eight-month-long pilot.

As Cointelegraph reported, the bank has minted 230 million Jamaican dollars (JMD) ($1.5 million) worth of the CBDC for issuance to deposit-taking institutions and authorized payment service providers. BoJ then issued 1 million JMD ($6,500) in CBDC to the staff at BoJ’s banking department and another 5 million JMD ($32,000) to the National Commercial Bank, a major financial institution in the country.

BoJ aims to add two new wallet providers for its CBDC, followed by a nationwide rollout in the first quarter of this year. The central bank also plans to focus on interoperability by testing transactions between customers of different wallet providers.

Russia’s Tinkoff Bank Enters Crypto Space Through Swiss Company Acquisition

January 14, 2022 Bitcoin.com

Swiss central bank tests wholesale CBDC with commercial partners

January 13, 2022 Coin Telegraph

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The Swiss National Bank integrated wholesale CBDC in banking systems with five commercial banks as part of the second phase of Project Helvetia.

Switzerland took another step to clarify the roadmap for integrating central bank digital currencies (CBDC) into the current financial system.

The Swiss National Bank (SNB), the country's central bank, completed the second phase of Project Helvetia with its partners by integrating wholesale CBDC into the existing back-office systems and processes of five banks, namely Citi, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, Hypothekarbank Lenzburg and UBS.

The Bank for International Settlements and Swiss financial infrastructure service provider SIX joined as partners of SNB in Project Helvetia Phase II, which took place during the fourth quarter of 2021.

Envisioned as a multi-phase investigation on the settlement of tokenized assets in central bank money, Project Helvetia aims to get central banks ready for a future where DLT-based tokenized financial assets are the norm. The project focuses on solving operational, legal and policy-related issues on settlements. The official announcement states that the lack of an existing systemic DLT-based platform doesn’t mean there won’t be such platforms in the future.

Switzerland was an ideal country to proceed with the experiment since issuing a wholesale CBDC, which is specifically used to settle interbank transfers and related wholesale transactions, on a distributed DLT platform operated and owned by a private company is possible under the law.

The second phase of Project Helvetia explored the settlement of interbank, monetary policy and cross-border transactions on the test systems of SIX Digital Exchange (SDX), the Swiss real-time gross settlement system — SIX Interbank Clearing (SIC) — and core banking systems, according to the announcement.

“To continue fulfilling their mandates of ensuring monetary and financial stability, central banks need to stay on top of technological change,” noted SNB governing board member Andréa M. Maechler. She continued:

“Project Helvetia is a prime example of how to achieve this. It allowed the SNB to deepen its understanding of how the safety of central bank money could be extended to tokenized asset markets.”

The first phase of Project Helvetia took place in December 2020 and focused on issuing a wholesale CBDC.

Axis Bank issues financial contract on state-backed blockchain platform

January 11, 2022 Coin Telegraph

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India’s Ministry of Commerce & Industry developed the SLDE platform for transferring documents using blockchain-based security protocols.

Indian financial services giant Axis Bank issued a financial contract between two domestic businesses by using a government-backed blockchain platform called Secured Logistics Document Exchange (SLDE).

SLDE was developed and released on Jul. 28, 2021, by India’s Ministry of Commerce & Industry to serve as a digital document exchange platform that uses blockchain-based security protocols for data security and authentication.

According to the official announcement, Axis issued a letter of credit, a financial contract that guarantees payment upon conditions, between Arcelor Mittal Nippon Steel India and Lalit Pipes & Pipes Ltd. With SLDE, the Indian ministry aims to improve transparency in terms of audits, capital requirements and logistics. Axis Bank’s president of wholesale banking products, Vivek Gupta, added:

“This transaction reinforces Axis’ commitment to lead the digitization in Transaction banking space.”

The state-backed blockchain platform also includes a greenhouse gas (GHG) emission calculator that “allows for commodity-wise comparison of GHG emissions and total cost of transportation, including their environmental cost, between movement by road and rail.”

Official poster with Ethereum logo. Source: Axis Bank.

The above image, originally shared by Axis Bank for the occasion, shows the logo of Ethereum (ETH) — strengthening the bank’s commitment to blockchain acceptance.

Despite the lack of discussions and regulations around cryptocurrencies, the central and state governments in India have taken proactive measures to implement blockchain technology across various business and development sectors.

At the end of last year, the state government of Telangana launched an initiative for early-stage Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 startups and blockchain developers to help build solutions to real-world problems. Speaking to Cointelegraph, the Government of Telangana’s director of emerging technology, Rama Devi Lanka, highlighted the government’s intent to expedite blockchain implementations across a variety of use cases:

“Some of the interesting use cases that the state has already piloted in Blockchain include — T-Chits (chit funds in blockchain), supply chain (seed traceability), e-voting (digital voting platform built using blockchain and AI) and more.”

Sberbank Launches First Blockchain ETF in Russia

January 2, 2022 Bitcoin.com

Bank of Russia to Collect Data on Crypto-Related Transactions Between Individuals

December 28, 2021 Bitcoin.com

Industry experts reveal a possible method for Bank of Russia to block crypto

December 24, 2021 Coin Telegraph

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Bank of Russia’s crypto restrictions through MCC would unlikely affect exchanges that have been operating illegally so far.

Amid the ongoing uncertainty about the future of cryptocurrencies in Russia, one local industry executive has disclosed a potential method for the Bank of Russia to block crypto transactions.

Andrey Mikhaylishin, CEO of the local crypto payment startup Joys, said that the Russian central bank is now considering several potential options to make its crypto ban possible, Forbes Russia reported Friday.

One of the possible restriction methods includes blocking debit card payments to crypto exchanges or wallets using merchant category codes (MCC), Mikhaylishin said. The report notes that the executive became aware of this blocking method from Bank of Russia employees.

MCC codes are four-digit numbers used by credit card processors like Visa or Mastercard to describe a merchant’s primary business activities. For example, crypto transactions are usually identified with the 6051 MCC code, while payments at grocery stores have the 5411 MCC code. According to the report, the Bank of Russia could oblige local banks to simply ban transactions with the 6051 MCC code.

While the potential plan is apparently still being discussed in Russia, some industry figures have questioned the effectiveness of such a strategy.

Maria Stankevich, a member of the Russian Committee on Blockchain Technologies and Cryptoeconomics, told Cointelegraph that potential MCC-based restrictions would trigger transparent businesses to leave the country while not affecting illegal crypto exchanges:

“I am 100% sure if they prohibit transfers to cryptocurrency with the right MCC, then honest exchanges will leave the market in the first place. There will remain grey crypto exchanges, which will do so-called miscoding, using other codes for transactions.”

Stankevich suggested that miscoding penalties at providers like Visa are insufficient for illegal crypto exchanges to stop their operations. As previously reported, there are several grey crypto businesses in Russia, with at least 50 of them located in Moscow City, a financial district in Russia’s capital.

The exec also expressed optimism about the cryptocurrency industry in Russia, pointing out that the Bank of Russia is essentially the only regulator that is against crypto adoption in the country:

“We have always known that the central bank is against crypto and wants it to be banned, but I still don’t think that this will be the way for Russia, because the central bank is in the minority there.”

“I personally know many high-ranking officials in Russia that understand the importance of crypto,” Stankevich added.

The news comes after Bank of Russia governor Elvira Nabiullina announced the Bank’s intention to prevent the local financial system from using crypto. Another exec at the bank subsequently claimed that Russians will only be able to invest in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) through foreign companies.

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