Russia Could Use Cryptocurrency to Blunt the Force of U.S. Sanctions.

Trump-Linked Crypto Venture Uses Web Privacy Service Linked to Russian Hackers.

The website of a cryptocurrency venture promoted by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump uses an anonymous privacy service that has been previously linked to Russian cybercriminals, Newsweek has found.

World Liberty Financials' website is registered to a domain host that provides privacy solutions via Withheld for Privacy, a service based in Iceland that allows websites to hide the details of their domains.

There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by World Liberty Financial in using the services of Withheld for Privacy, but it raises questions over what exactly the company is, who is behind it and how it will do business.

World Liberty Financial declined to comment to Newsweek. A Trump representative did not respond to Newsweek's request for comment.

https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-crypto-world-liberty-financial-scam-1949738

Russian companies have many cryptocurrency tools at their disposal to evade sanctions, including a so-called digital ruble and ransomware.

Make Bitcoin great again – what Donald Trump's backing ...

MOSCOW, July 17 (Reuters) - Russia should accelerate the creation of infrastructure for payments in cryptocurrencies but carefully weigh the associated risks, its money laundering watchdog said on Wednesday, ahead of a parliamentary vote on digital assets legislation.

Russia has faced significant delays in international transactions with major trading partners such as China, India, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey, after local banks, under pressure from Western regulators, have become more cautious.

[Bitcoin miners at Donald Trump’s closed-door event say he thinks bitcoin can help win AI arms race.]

Donald Trump says he wants all future bitcoin to be minted in the U.S.

The proclamation comes after the former president convened a working group of the country’s top bitcoin miners on Tuesday in Mar-a-Lago.

The coalition included representatives from Riot Platforms, Marathon Digital Holdings, Terawulf, CleanSpark, Core Scientific, Arkon Energy, Cholla Energy and Exacore.

In Palm Beach, Florida, about a dozen bitcoin mining executives and experts sat down with former president Donald Trump for an hour and a half in a small tea room at the Mar-a-Lago Club. As a steady drizzle fell outside, they sipped from Trump-branded water bottles and tried to sell him on the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.

The meeting marked the first time the former president and presumptive Republican presidential nominee — recently convicted of 34 felonies in New York — had taken a meeting with the technologists securing the $1.3 trillion bitcoin network.

The intimate gathering brought together a coalition of some of the biggest private and public American miners in the business, including representatives from Riot Platforms, Marathon Digital Holdings, Terawulf, CleanSpark, Core Scientific, Arkon Energy, Cholla Energy and Exacore.

Russian operatives used cryptocurrency at almost every stage in their online efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, according to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s final report on his investigation.

Systems used in the hacking of the Democratic Party were paid for using Bitcoin, as were online hosting services that supported websites which published hacked materials and were used in the targeting of disinformation at American voters. The hacking and disinformation campaigns accounted for the vast majority of Russia’s online efforts to influence the 2016 election.

All Bitcoin transactions are posted to an immutable public ledger, known as a blockchain. While the blockchain doesn’t contain obvious identifying information about the person behind a transaction, once someone figures out a user is responsible for one transaction it can be possible to track their entire Bitcoin history.

Russian agents, including those from the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence agency, had sought to, as the Mueller indictment of GRU agents last July outlined, “capitalize on the perceived anonymity of cryptocurrencies.” But while Bitcoin allowed Russians to “avoid direct relationships with traditional financial institutions, allowing them to evade greater scrutiny of their identities and sources of funds,” according to the same indictment, it wasn’t enough to evade Mueller’s investigation.

2024: Trump rolls out new cryptocurrency business.

After once calling cryptocurrency a "scam," Trump and his sons are now launching a crypto exchange. #MoneyLaundering

Criminals Thought Bitcoin Was the Perfect Hiding Place, but They Thought Wrong.

Companies have popped up to help cops identify suspects who use Bitcoin, and savvy criminals are moving to other currencies.

When the United States barred Americans from doing business with Russian banks, oil and gas developers and other companies in 2014, after the country’s invasion of Crimea, the hit to Russia’s economy was swift and immense. Economists estimated that sanctions imposed by Western nations cost Russia $50 billion a year.

Since then, the global market for cryptocurrencies and other digital assets has ballooned. That’s bad news for enforcers of sanctions, and good news for Russia.

Russia’s Cryptocurrency Pivot: Legislated Sanctions Evasion..

Russia Is About to Try Using Crypto to Get Around Sanctions.

In response to mounting financial pressures of Western sanctions, Russia enacted significant legislation legalizing cryptocurrency mining and permitting the use of cryptocurrency for international payments. The bills were signed into law on August 8th by President Vladmir Putin and crypto payment trials are slated to start this month, according to a Bloomberg report.

This represents a significant departure from the government’s previous stance in the country, where the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) had pushed for a complete ban on cryptocurrencies as recently as 2022. The new laws, set to take effect in September for cross-border payments and November for crypto mining, will enable Russian businesses to engage in international trade using cryptocurrencies and authorize approved entities to mine digital assets.

Putin has called on Russia “not to miss the moment” in regulating cryptocurrencies, emphasizing their growing role in global payments and potential to reduce reliance on the U.S. dollar. Key officials, including bill author Anton Gorelkin and CBR Governor Elvira Nabiullina, have specifically acknowledged that this legislative change is aimed at mitigating the impact of sanctions and facilitating international payments.

For Russia’s evolving attitude towards cryptocurrency watch Donald Trumps evolving support for Bitcoin.

Residents of Granbury, Texas allege the bitcoin mine operating near them is making them sick. They say the noise is to blame, but the company that runs the mine says there is no proof of a connection.

Despite the recent legislation, Russia’s ban on using cryptocurrencies for domestic payments remains in place. Nevertheless, this has not dampened the widespread use of cryptocurrency within the country. In fact, Russia consistently ranks among the top countries in our annual Global Crypto Adoption Index, consistent with our broader observation that blanket bans on cryptocurrency are often ineffective, as they do not significantly curb usage but rather push it into informal or less regulated channels.

Concurrently, crypto-linked banking services have also been on the rise in Russia prior to the recent legislation. Rosbank, owned by Russian billionaire Vladimir Potanin, paved the way for cross-border cryptocurrency payments for business in June of last year, according to Vedomosti, with several other banks subsequently introducing similar services.

Sanctions evasion through cross-border payments.

The CBR is spearheading the initiative to integrate cryptocurrency into Russia’s financial system for cross-border payments, creating an experimental infrastructure that allows approved Russian businesses and entities to use digital currencies for international trade. Approved mining entities will also be allowed to use crypto to settle trades, according to official statements.

These recent crypto-forward legislative efforts are part of Russia’s broader efforts to develop alternative payments mechanisms to alleviate Western sanctions pressure while decreasing dependence on the U.S. dollar, which has been a long-term goal for Russia especially amidst increasing geopolitical tensions.

The Central Bank of Russia: New scope of regulatory power.

The new legislation consolidates the CBR’s control over cryptocurrency within Russia, enabling it to regulate and monitor these transactions closely. While the CBR is still testing its central bank digital currency (CBDC) with the digital ruble projected to launch in 2025, this legislation allows the use of existing cryptocurrencies with central bank oversight.

Russia has been exploring various methods to circumvent the U.S. dominated financial system, including blockchain-based initiatives with the BRICS community and the potential launch of a gold-backed stablecoin with Iran. The Financial Messaging System of the Central Bank of Russia (SPFS) — Russia’s alternative to the SWIFT financial messaging system — is another key component of this strategy, although its use remains limited.

Exchanges that may process international transactions.

Per the Bloomberg report, authorities are exploring ways to legalize crypto exchanges. “We haven’t found a solution yet on how to do this,” said Finance Minister Anton Siluanov. Nevertheless, according to reporting by Russian news outlet Kommersant, Russia is moving forward with plans to launch two new crypto exchanges in St. Petersburg and Moscow. The exchange in St. Petersburg will reportedly be supported by infrastructure from the St. Petersburg Currency Exchange (SPCE), though SPCE has denied involvement according to the state-run news agency Interfax. Despite the regulatory ambivalence, Russia is already home to a thriving cryptocurrency ecosystem.

Some of Russia’s largest non-KYC exchanges, such as Tetchange, 100btc, Bitzlato, Suex, and Garantex, have been housed in or near Federation Tower, a two skyscraper complex located within the Moscow International Business Center, also known as Moscow-City. While some of these services, like Suex OTC, have seen a decline in activity following their designation by the U.S. Treasury Department, others, such as Garantex, have maintained a steady level of operations.

Garantex is a central player in Russia’s crypto market and likely to remain instrumental despite its designation by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) in the U.S. and UK, respectively. This centralized exchange (CEX) has processed a substantial volume of transactions by designated actors in Russia and Iran, demonstrating its utility for sanctions evasion. Under the new legislation, the Russian government could officially or unofficially leverage services like Garantex, given its deep liquidity across major blockchains. Although Garantex has processed nearly $100 billion in transactions since 2018, this large-scale activity does not necessarily equate to state-sponsored sanctions evasion at scale, and should be assessed with caution. It’s important to note that not all Garantex users are Russian nationals or Russia-based, nor do they operate on behalf of the Russian government. Additionally, a great deal of sanctions evasion activity occurs outside official government channels and takes place through traditional off-chain methods, such as private investment vehicles and offshore shell companies.

Another exchange that could be leveraged for crypto-based sanctions evasion is Exved, which has worked closely with InDeFi Bank, co-founded by Garantex founder Sergey Mendeleev and former KGB officer and media tycoon Alexander Lebedev. Exved has been facilitating imports and exports even before the new legislation.

2021: Federal prosecutors have charged two longtime Republican operatives with helping a Russian national illegally contribute $25,000 to former President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign, keeping another $75,000 for themselves, according to an indictment unsealed Monday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.

2024: Two RT Employees Indicted for Covertly Funding and Directing U.S. Company that Published Thousands of Videos in Furtherance of Russian Interests.

Most Criminal Cryptocurrency Funnels Through Just 5 Exchanges.

The crypto money-laundering market is tighter than at any time in the past decade, and the few big players are moving a “shocking” amount of currency.

https://www.chainalysis.com/blog/russias-cryptocurrency-legislated-sanctions-evasion/

Even Trump’s Crypto Allies Think His Sons’ New Startup Is a Stupid Idea.

Plans by former president Donald Trump’s eldest sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, to launch a crypto startup have set off alarm bells among even his staunchest allies in the sector, according to a new report in Politico.

The two brothers have spent recent weeks touting World Liberty Financial, their soon-to-be-launched, shrouded-in-secrecy cryptocurrency firm.

But a string of mishaps, including Trump family members getting hacked by scammers and concerns about World Liberty’s deep connections to a blockchain firm that lost $2 million because of security shortfalls, has some arguing they should pack it up before they begin.

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2022: Pierre Poilievre wants to make Canada the world’s ‘crypto capital.’

Why his populist pitch may find fertile ground....

Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre said Monday a government led by him would do more to normalize cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ethereum in Canada to "decentralize" the economy and reduce the influence of central bankers.

Since bitcoin's advent in 2013, a number of right-leaning and libertarian-minded investors have championed cryptocurrency — a financial instrument that is largely unregulated in the Western world — as a way to reduce government control over money because the supply of cryptocurrency tokens is not set by an authority like the Bank of Canada or the U.S. Federal Reserve.

With its supply limited to just 21 million tokens, bitcoin boosters insist cryptocurrency is a hedge against inflation. A bullish long-term future for Bitcoin is predicted, especially with the upcoming Bitcoin Halving in early-2024—which has historically been a major catalyst for crypto bull runs. Jul 19, 2024.