It was a big week for the Russian tech market. The NASDAQ-listed Internet giant Yandex took a big leap into the financial sector with the announcement of plans to purchase digital bank Tinkoff for $5.5 billion. Days later, the country’s largest bank, state-controlled Sberbank, launched a major rebranding in which CEO German Gref gave a Steve …
Russia’s Internet and telecom regulator Roskomnadzor has added Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, to the list of blacklisted websites in the country. The exchange was blacklisted on June 2, 2020, but Binance became aware of this only on September 24th, after receiving communication from Roskomnadzor. Binance said on its Russian Telegram channel it was …
Sberbank, Russia’s state-controlled financial behemoth, is showcasing what it calls the biggest transformation in its history, as it unveils a suite of new technology products in an aggressive drive to get deeper into the tech sector. In a flashy presentation Thursday morning — echoing Apple’s famous annual product launches which attract millions of viewers and …
Sberbank unveils sweeping transformation into tech company Read More
The corporate venture fund of MTS, a leading Russian mobile operator, is investing 125 million rubles (around $1.7 million at the current exchange rate) in personal finance app Coinkeeper. Coinkeeper claims 350,000 users all over the world whom it helps “make the right financial decisions” from expense forecasting, to advanced analytics, to the management of …
MTS corporate fund invests in financial app Coinkeeper Read More
Ukraine, Russia, China, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, and the US are among the top-ranking countries by cryptocurrency adoption, according to the 2020 Global Crypto Adoption Index compiled by blockchain data analytics firm Chainalysis. Chainalysis’ 2020 Global Crypto Adoption Index, released earlier this week, ranks 154 countries based on their cryptocurrency adoption. The crypto adoption index …
Ukraine, Russia, South Africa, Nigeria top global cryptocurrency adoption ranking Read More
Last week Mercuryo.io, a Russian-founded startup based in Estonia, announced the completion of its first round of funding, having received €2.5 million from Target Global. Mercuryo.io has built a cross-border cryptocurrency payment network for businesses – allowing for transactions from and to anywhere in the world. This infrastructure offers solutions for virtual accounts, business payments, …
Target Global bets on Russo-Estonian startup “to disrupt crypto payments” Read More
Roskomnadzor, the Russian Internet and telecom regulator, has blocked popular Russian cryptocurrency exchange monitoring website Bestchange.ru for the third time. Bestchange.ru explained that it had been investigating how to unblock its domain but testing may take some time. This website, launched in 2007, is not restricted to just cryptocurrency. It helps users find the best offers online, including the …
Russia blocks cryptocurrency websites ahead of regulation Read More
One of the main figures in the collapse of German payment firm Wirecard, chief operating officer Jan Marsalek, is reportedly hiding somewhere near Moscow. Russian online publication The Bell looked at Wirecard’s connections with Russia, and why Marsalek visited the country over 60 times in a decade. The reason for Marsalek’s trips was a search for banks …
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law Friday the bill that regulates digital financial asset (DFA) transactions, Russian media RIA Novosti reported. It was approved by the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, on July 22 and by the Federation Council on July 24. The law will come into force on Jan. …
Putin signs law giving cryptocurrency legal status in Russia Read More
Major changes took place in late June on the Russian e-commerce and e-payment scenes. Yandex, the Russian Internet major, and Sberbank, the state-controlled financial and technology giant, announced an agreement “to reorganize their two joint ventures” – Yandex.Market and Yandex.Money. In plain language, this is a divorce. Yandex is to own entirely the e-commerce platform …
While divorcing with Sberbank, Yandex raises $1 billion to finance e-commerce projects Read More
In what could put an end to a long saga, the US Securities and Exchange Commission announced today that it “obtained court approval of settlements with Telegram and its subsidiary TON Issuer Inc.” “Without admitting or denying the allegations in the SEC’s complaint, the defendants consented to entry of a final judgment enjoining them from …
Kaspersky researchers have uncovered a new technique for stealing users’ payment information on online shopping websites, dubbed web skimming. By registering for Google Analytics accounts and injecting these accounts’ tracking code into the websites’ source code, attackers can collect users’ credit card details. Web skimming is a popular practice used by attackers to steal users’ credit …
Kaspersky researchers found a new fraudulent technique that steals online payment details Read More
