NFT News by Thebittimes.Com

Ukraine National Police have raided a criminal call center network that promised phony crypto investments to unsuspecting victims, seizing luxury cars and arresting an individual with links to a so-called ‘thief in law.’  According to a translated announcement from Ukrainian police on Monday, authorities detained 14 suspects accused of defrauding victims across Ukraine, Moldova, Kazakhstan, and the European Union.  Following 40 searches across Ukraine , authorities seized 12 luxury cars, 136 units of computer equipment, 951 SIM cards, and funds totaling $64,500. As part of the operation, scammers called victims pretending to be employees at a stock exchange and, using ‘psychological techniques,’ persuaded them to invest personal funds into crypto. They then transferred the stolen funds to criminally controlled digital wallets and bank cards.  Footage shared by Ukraine police of the raids against members of the crypto scam call centre.  Read more...

The BRICS alliance is looking to work on an alternative currency to take on the US dollar. The bloc is working out several options to end dependency on the US dollar and promote local currencies for global trade. The alliance is also convincing other developing countries to stop relying on the US dollar and promote local currencies instead. Read here to know how many sectors in the US will be affected if BRICS ditches the dollar for trade. Reports are doing the rounds that BRICS is considering a single unit currency, similar to the Euro, to challenge the US dollar. Also Read: India Begins To Study BRICS Currency Russia ’s Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov said that BRICS members are looking at the possibility of a common unit of account and currency, similar to the Euro . Siluanov said that the currency could work as an alternative to the US dollar, and can be used to denote the cost of some commodities. “This can be a unit of account for the BRICS member countries....

Leaders of BRICS countries India and Russia spoke at length on Monday discussing various issues on strategic partnerships. The telephonic conversation between India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin revolved around a roadmap for future initiatives. Russia is leading the charge for BRICS this year as the next summit will be held in October 2024 in the Kazan region. Also Read: 3 Countries Agree To Launch BRICS Currency To Challenge US Dollar The 16th BRICS summit in Russia will see the new extended bloc of 10 countries decide the course of the next action. De-dollarization is the main initiative of BRICS and the alliance could likely decide on the formation of a new currency. Read here to know how many sectors in the US will be affected if BRICS ditches the dollar for trade. BRICS: What Did India & Russia Discuss? Source: Alexandr Demyanchuk / Sputnik / AFP via Getty Images India ’s Prime Minister Modi confirmed th...

BRICS members Russia and Iran have officially abandoned the SWIFT payment system for cross-border transactions. The two countries will initiate payments to settle international trade using direct bank transfers. SWIFT payment system is no longer needed for trade between Russia and Iran, as both countries have agreed to carry out transactions directly through the banks. The two BRICS members will engage in direct bank transfers in their respective local currency and not the US dollar. Also Read: BRICS: JP Morgan Issues Major Warning About US Economy The direct bank transfers with no SWIFT are between Russia and Iran only, and not the other BRICS members. Read here to know how many sectors in the US will be affected if BRICS ditches the dollar for trade. BRICS: After Being Banned From SWIFT, Russia & Iran Initiate Direct Bank Transfers in Local Currency Source: oilprice.com Both Russia and Iran were banned from SWIFT in 2022 after the US pressed sanctions against the ...

BRICS member India had convinced 22 countries to accept the Rupee for international trade and ditch the US dollar. The majority of the countries hail from Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the global south. India also opened special Vostro bank accounts to make it easier to settle payments in their local currency, the Rupee . All the 22 countries had signed the agreement to trade a part of goods in the Rupee and sideline the US dollar. Also Read: Russia Makes Huge Announcement On New BRICS Expansion However, things are not going as planned for India as the majority of countries are now unwilling to keep the Rupee as reserves. India finds no takers for the Rupee as the currency is declining against the US dollar. Hoarding the Rupee in reserves serves no purpose, as the demand for the currency lacks strength in the global market. The default payment is now either the US dollar, Euro, Pound, Chinese Yuan, Japanese Yen, or UAE’s Dirhams. The Rupee is finding no seat at t...

Premier League club Chelsea FC has announced a new sponsorship deal with a pro-Russia crypto exchange that has been accused of holding user funds “hostage” and “strongarming” them out of monthly bonuses. As reported by The Telegraph, the multi-year deal will see BingX become the club’s new shirt sleeve sponsor for the remainder of the 2023/24 season and then its training kit sponsor from the end of the campaign. However, at virtually the same time as Chelsea was announcing the new deal, BingX was the subject of an angry X (formerly Twitter) tirade that accused it of blocking a user’s account and seizing their funds. X user and crypto trader Miz (@TradoorMiz) explained: “BingX held 215,000 USDT of mine hostage and strongarmed me out of my 92,336 USDC monthly affiliate bonus. “I was introduced to a BingX BD by a friend of mine who had worked with them for some time. I had dinner with the BD on 10/13 and we spoke about specifics, the future of our partnership, etc. All details were...

As sanctions have cut Russia off from the global economy, the local central bank hopes its digital currency will help it revive international trade. The Bank of Russia is working on a way to use its digital ruble for cross-border trades to “ avoid super-close attention ” from U.S. regulators. A deputy chairman of Russia’s central bank, Vladimir Chistyukhin, said on Sept. 21 that the central bank basically wants to circumvent sanctions with the digital ruble. Per a report by RussHowever, he admitted that the idea would not work without involving the other “friendly” party. “In this regard, [with the digital ruble] we could avoid super-close attention at least from Western banking systems. But this requires serious political will from regulators and leadership of these friendly countries in order to achieve mutual interoperability of these operating systems.” Vladimir Chistyukhin You might also like: North Korean hackers turn to...

Trade volume of the Russia n rouble and largest ‘stablecoin’ Tether rose drastically amid the Wagner Group’s failed insurrection, as Russia ns withdrew over $1 billion from local banks in a bid to find alternatives, Financial Times (FT) reports. USDT-RUB jumped 277% on June 24 when Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin ordered his troops to move on Moscow, from $3.9 million to $14.7 million, according to CCData. This was the highest volume recorded for the trading pair since it climbed to over $21 million in July 2022. When the military leader ordered his troops to retreat the next day, volume went back down to $3 million. Meanwhile, the rouble has shed a half of its value over the past six months and reached over 90Rbs per US dollar this month — its lowest point since Russia first invaded Ukraine. However, the surge in trade volume has reinforced existing concerns of illicit activity. According to the former chief of staff at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Char...

Bitzlato is yet to resolve the issue with the remaining 50% of user funds and may eventually compensate using its own funds. Russia-linked cryptocurrency exchange Bitzlato has managed to partly restore access to user funds despite being officially seized by European authorities. Bitzlato has enabled its users to withdraw up to 50% of assets that were stuck on the platform due to enforcement from the United States and Europol, the firm announced on its Telegram channel on March 20. According to the statement, Bitzlato users are now able to restore a half of their assets using the Telegram bot @bz_phoenix_bot, which allows users to move assets from the web Bitzlato account to an external wallet or an exchange . All withdrawals from Bitzlato are processed in Bitcoin (BTC) as the platform converted all altcoin holdings by users into BTC at the time the service was halted on Jan. 18. According to the firm, Bitzlato had to convert user balances into Bitcoin due to technical difficulties a...