For Russian financial institutions to circumvent Western-backed economic sanctions since its invasion of Ukraine, Russian deputies are pushing for wholesale CBDC while the retail pilot gets underway.
Recent reports allege that Binance had "entered into an agreement to sell the entirety of its Russia business to CommEX," an exchange that launched only the day before.
North Korea shows no sign of slowing its ‘crypto’ hacking operations and is increasing its use of Russian digital asset exchanges to launder its ill-gotten gains.
Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao insisted that Binance wasn’t facing any liquidity issues and was winning court cases, establishing new fiat payment rails, hiring new staff, and entering new markets.
Russia CBDC with programmability features and additional strict protocols may possibly happen as per the State Duma Committee on Financial Markets Chairman Anatoly Aksakov.
The SEC's filing against Binance could lead to one of two things if disclosed to the public: a criminal investigation or putting a company or witness at risk.
The group of investors from Russia who lost $12 million are suing Atomic Wallet for failing to inform them or the authorities about the $100 million hack.
Binance remains a key conduit for Russian entities looking to convert rubles into digital assets that can then be exchanged for mainstream fiat currencies, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
As Russia prepares its digital ruble pilot, concerns arise over privacy and the CBDC's potential implications to the financial landscape, which may likely push back the project's full rollout.
Starting in 2025, business-to-business transactions involving the digital ruble will have a 15 rubles ($0.16) charge, while individuals will only have a 0.3% charge of the total value of the transaction.
Although Russia has said the digital ruble will be optional, banks want that embedded in legislation as they say their customers are wary of the upcoming state-backed digital currency.
Even though the use of the digital ruble remains voluntary, the Bank of Russia’s law on the CBDC is being criticized over its alleged lack of privacy rights.
