Russian banks want to put the squeeze on local crypto investors, Breeze made buying bitcoin easier, the USA is no longer a leader in the number of crypto deals

Russian bankers want to tighten supervision over the owners of cryptocurrencies

The Association of Banks of Russia is lobbying an initiation to deanonymize cryptocurrency owners. ABT suggests envisioning criminal liability for those who decided to hide their assets from the government. The organization has prepared a concept which describes a mechanism of collecting digital assets within the framework of open enforcement proceedings in case of bankruptcy or taxation. In these cases, some “special market agents” find out who the owners of crypto coins are, to oblige them to transfer passwords from their digital wallets in the course of the court proceedings.

Also, the bankers think that cryptocurrency transactions must be taxable as goods exchange operations, and purchase and sell operations must be subject to income tax. This would mean that taxation of individual persons will be similar to procedures with stock market players.

Breeze payment service decided to make buying bitcoins easier

Breeze payment service has introduced a new function for crypto investors. Now users from 35 countries can buy BTC with LN support directly from the mobile app.

Breeze stated that other wallets working with Lightning Network are not that focused on developing a high-quality client interface. Before that, if users were planning to purchase digital coins, they had to buy BTC, transfer them into a wallet with LN support, and then wait for the transaction confirmation. Now the direct purchase has become possible, which makes interaction with cryptocurrencies easier even for beginner investors.

Asia and Europe have moved the USA from the position of the world center of crypto deals

PwC analysts have come to a conclusion that a considerable part of fundraising and M&A deals in the digital currency market are now taking place in Europe and Asia. Previously the USA had a dominant role in this direction. Over 40 percent of global fundraising deals in Q2 2019 took place in Europe. Europe saw 34 percent of such in the same period in 2018. The share of the Asian market has jumped significantly, accounting for 26 percent, and the share of the American market has decreased from 51 percent last year down to 28 percent this year.

The experts noted the global decline of cryptocurrency deals by more that 50 percent in comparison with the same period last year. But the analysts think that the growth of BTC rate positively influences on stabilizing the industry. As a PwC representative said, the main crypto coin is the bellwether for the industry and for the sentiment of investors. As the price of bitcoin has recovered, there have been more activities in fundraising and M&A activities.