👍🏻 Good news from the battlefield of cryptocurrency legislation in Russia. The bill on digital financial assets is not going to be edited too much, so it has all the chances to pass to the next reading soon. Let's keep our fingers crossed!

https://cointelegraph.com/news/russian-deputy-prime-minister-draft-crypto-legislation-wont-be-significantly-edited

💲 During the downtrend, stable coins are something to help you save your crypto investments since their rate always equals to 1 unit of a fiat currency. One more stable coin was to be launched by the startup Basis funded by none other than Google itself.
However, the launch never happened due to SEC tight regulations.

‼️ BitRussia plans to launch own stable coin in the Russian jurisdiction since the legislation is not so tight here.

https://ambcrypto.com/secs-tight-regulations-see-google-funded-startup-basis-stablecoin-project-close-shop/

Among the countries that are most friendly towards cryptos are
- Switzerland
- Malta
- UK
- Germany
- Hong Kong
- Australia
- US
and many more.
Authorities in these regions have started to actively work on qualifying the legal status of cryptocurrency or already successfully completed this task.

Russia is getting closer to legalization questions as well, and hopefully, startups will soon be able to legally raise funds here, too.

https://lawstrust.com/en/ico/pravovoj-status-kriptovalyut/crypto-friendly

BitRussia aims to solve the following problems in cryptocurrency regulation:

🔸trust between projects and investors, BitRussia will serve as a mediator to secure investor's funds
🔸integration with traditional banking solutions and classic banking products
🔸creation of a whole ecosystem for running advanced business processes

Follow our channel to learn more!

🇮🇷 Iran aims to issue at least 2 state-backed virtual currencies to by-pass the US sanctions. Before that, officials accepted cryptocurrency mining as an official industry and signed a trilateral agreement of cooperation regarding blockchain technologies with Russia and Armenia.

The experts from all 3 countries come together to share the experience and find the practical use for blockchain-based applications.

https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2018/12/iran-cryptocurrency-blockchain-swift-russia-agreement.html

📉 The current downtrend in the ICO market makes it very difficult for crypto projects to raise sufficient funds, especially through the classic financial market. BitRussia is here to help such projects.

‼️ Sign up, pass the KYC procedure and present your project to dozens of funds. The launch in 2019!

http://bitrussia.io

‼️ BitRussia founder Ivan Rodionov talks about the current problems in ICO regulations at RBC conference.

4 main factors that contribute into the growth of the industry:
1) trust
2) safety
3) technology
4) law

👍🏻 BitRussia aims to resolve them all by providing the crypto projects with the appropriate environment and the investors with the means of controlling the funds' expenditure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBDgaoXfj-c

❓ Assets, property, electronic money. It's hard to settle common definitions across all jurisdictions for such a new area as cryptocurrencies.

‼️ The Russian ministry calls cryptocurrencies a property, but it's not official yet. There's still much to work on and the appropriate laws are yet to be developed.

https://news.bitcoin.com/the-daily-japan-calls-all-coins-crypto-assets-russia-defines-cryptocurrency-as-property/

👍🏻 Russian Lawyers Association and an educational company Blockchain Lawyers have agreed to establish a specialized commission to solve legal problems in the crypto industry with the pointed concern about taxation.

👍🏻 This is one more step towards ICO legalization and good news for all Russian crypto enthusiasts.
https://news.bitcoin.com/lawyers-to-help-the-russian-crypto-industry-deal-with-inadequate-laws/

↗️ The report from the financial analysts states that cryptos pose a low risk of different illegal activities, but authorities still don't give green light to ICOs. There are still many obstacles to overcome to let IT startups operate legally.

https://www.ccn.com/fatf-uk-crypto-exchanges-pose-low-money-laundering-terrorist-financing-risk/

🇨🇳 China was one of the first countries to ban cryptocurrencies at the official level. But in spite of such restrictions, authorities are not planning to give up on the new technologies.

Surely, this country will soon bring blockchain to the new level.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Bitcoin-evolution/Hong-Kong-to-tighten-cryptocurrency-rules

‼️ Ripple develops its solution specifically for banks. Those financial institutions that have already implemented it now make use of instant transactions at low fees.

👍🏻If Western Union switches to XRP the international money transfers will get way faster.

https://dailyhodl.com/2018/12/18/western-union-says-its-ready-for-crypto-tests-with-ripple-and-xrp-based-xrapid/

🇯🇵 Japan is on the right way towards legalizing cryptocurrencies in general and ICO in particular. The term "virtual currency” may be changed so as not to make people confused.

The Financial Services Agency plans to control ICOs and make them register with this regulator in order to protect investors from fraud.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/japan-crypto-classified-as-crypto-assets-to-prevent-confusion-with-legal-tender

↗️ After all bans and restrictions, the biggest social platform now turns towards creating its own cryptocurrency that would act as a stable coin pegged to USD. If this is not a step towards mass adoption then what is?

↗️ The company opens new positions for blockchain developers. Facebook's stable coin would be a good alternative to Tether that has been under severe scrutiny recently.
https://www.ccn.com/facebook-developing-cryptocurrency-for-whatsapp-transfers-amidst-another-privacy-scandal/

👆 The Russian Parliament is going to implement regulations regarding cryptocurrencies in the upcoming couple of months. The new rules will concern activities of electronic platforms and marketplaces which will affect investment and crowdfunding platforms, too.

👆 Anatoly Aksakov, the Head of the State Duma Committee on the Financial Market, is positive about new technologies. Hopefully, blockchain-based crowdfunding will soon come out of the grey zone.
https://www.financemagnates.com/cryptocurrency/regulation/russian-parliament-to-implement-crypto-regulations-in-february/

👍🏻 Now that the shares of such huge companies as Tesla, Apple, Facebook and Netflix are available for trading as security tokens on the blockchain we can be sure that the new technology has made one more step towards mass implementation.

👍🏻 Dx.exchange will be the first cryptocurrency trading platform to list the shares of popular Nasdaq-listed companies.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/07/bitcoin-security-token-and-sto-explained.html

👍🏻 Good news for cryptocurrency investors in the US. The current bear market gives an opportunity for a tax break. Investors should sell and re-purchase their BTC in order to reduce taxes. The fixed losses will allow to reduce taxes on gains.
https://bitcoinexchangeguide.com/bitcoin-investors-could-enhance-tax-savings-by-selling-and-repurchasing-their-crypto-assets/

The bill was introduced by 2 members of the US House of Representatives. According to the bill, no person or entity has control over a digital asset’s development or operation. Cryptocurrencies with no central controller will be spared a securities designation.
https://www.coindesk.com/us-lawmakers-file-bill-to-exempt-cryptocurrencies-from-securities-laws

The best practices that Russia can take from Malta in terms of cryptocurrency regulation:
- cryptos are not legal tender, but they are recognized as a medium of exchange
- there's no specific tax legislation
- VAT is not applicable to transactions exchanging fiat for crypto.
So far, Malta provides the best environment for growing blockchain startups.