Half of Gazprom’s 54 clients opened Gazprombank accounts, says Russia’s Novak

RIYADH: Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency internationally, traded lower on Thursday, down 1.73 percent to $29,293 as of 10:10 a.m. Riyadh time.

Ether, the second most traded cryptocurrency, was priced at $1,965, down 3.03 percent, according to data from Coindesk.

Russia to legalize cryptocurrency sooner or later: Minister

Russia will sooner or later legalize cryptocurrencies as a means of payment, Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov said on Wednesday, suggesting that the government and central bank may be moving closer to settling their differences.

Manturov was asked at a forum whether he believed cryptocurrencies would become legal as a means of payment.

“The question is, when this happens, how it will be regulated, now that the central bank and government are actively working on it,” he replied.

“But everyone tends to understand that, sooner or later this will be implemented, in some format or other.”

Russia has plans to issue its own digital rouble, but the government has only recently come round to supporting the use of private cryptocurrencies, having argued for years that they could be used in money laundering or to finance terrorism.

Coinbase establishes think tank to push policy goals

Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the US, is launching a global think tank to shape the policy debate around digital assets as regulators and Congress explore how crypto-assets should be governed.

The Coinbase Institute will accelerate research on cryptocurrency and Web3 — a decentralized version of the Internet — and spearhead discussions with policymakers and academics on the intersection of technology and finance, said Hermine Wong, director of policy at Coinbase and the director of the institute.

“We’re interested in every area of research that involves the crypto economy and how it is interdisciplinary, how it is connected to our global economy, and so there’s nothing that’s going to be off limits,” she said.

Mexican cryptocurrency platform Bitso launches in Colombia

Mexican cryptocurrency exchange platform Bitso has begun operating in Colombia, its fourth market, where it hopes to accumulate 1 million clients just this month, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Daniel Vogel said.

Bitso is among Latin America’s growing collection of “unicorns” — companies with a valuation of at least $1 billion — and is worth some $2.2 billion, following a 2021 funding round where it raised $250 million.

Bitso will offer customers instant transfers via the PSE payment system, sales of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ether, as well as use of its new investment platform Bitso+.

Bitso currently has 4 million customers in Mexico, Brazil and Argentina.

“With our launch in Colombia we hope to hit 5 million customers and we think we can do that this month,” Vogel told Reuters in a phone interview.

“We see Colombia as a key market for us, which we are entering with this expansion plan from the point of view of our products, hiring people (and) growing in the country — it is a very dynamic market in terms of cryptocurrencies,” he added, though he declined to say how much Bitso would invest in the Andean country.

(With input from Reuters)