Ukraine

Ukraine plans to adopt EU’s new cryptocurrency regulations

Immediately after passing the European Parliament, Ukrainian authorities announced plans to adopt the EU’s MiCA regulations on crypto assets.

Hot on the heels of the European Parliament passing the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation, Ukrainian regulators have stated publicly that they will adopt the legislative package in their own country as well.

The deputy chairman of the Tax Committee of Ukraine, Yaroslav Zheleznyak, said on his Telegram channel on April 20, “We, along with colleagues from the NKCPFR [National Commission on Securities and the Stock Market] and other regulators, are already working on implementing some provisions of MiCA to make crypto assets legal in Ukraine.”

Yuriy Boyko, a member of the NKCPFR, said, “I am sure Ukraine will be one of the first countries to implement this regulation into national legislation.”

The introduction of MiCA marks a major advancement for the crypto industry within the European Union.

MiCA is the result of long efforts of European policymakers to introduce uniform regulations and create standardized rules for crypto assets across the EU, as crypto businesses are currently required to adhere to 27 distinct regulatory frameworks across EU member countries.

The implementation of MiCA is expected to enhance the competitiveness of startups in the EU, which could lead to a rise in their market share as compared to unregulated competitors.

Despite the need for EU lawmakers to still conduct legal and linguistic checks for MiCA as well as publish the bill in the EU journal, different stakeholders in the crypto industry have reacted positively to the development.

Ukraine’s move to adopt EU regulations comes on the backdrop of the Eastern European country receiving candidate status to the EU in June 2022. Per the European Council, European regulators have “acknowledged the considerable efforts that Ukraine has demonstrated towards meeting the objectives underpinning its candidate status for EU membership.”

Magazine: Helping Ukraine without donating: Laura’s DeFi staking plan

Bear markets are for filming: The Bitcoin Film Festival in Warsaw

Lights, camera, Bitcoin: A Bitcoin Film Festival in Poland brought the Bitcoin revolution to the big screen.

The bear market might rage on, but that won’t stop the Bitcoin (BTC) shooters, creators and filmmakers from producing new content.

Hosted in the capital of Poland, Warsaw, the first edition of the Bitcoin Film Festival took place in March. The festival brought together Bitcoin advocates and film lovers from across the globe to sit through some of the best-known Bitcoin films and documentaries.

Hosted in the Kinoteka theater in the iconic Palace of Culture and Science, the Bitcoin Film Festival festival celebrated Bitcoin’s growing global influence while underscoring the thriving cultural movement that underpins the digital network. Some talents from the Bitcoin movement’s first film festival, BitFilm in 2015, such as Tomer Kantor, were in attendance, and they continue to shoot Bitcoin-centric films.

Cointelegraph premiered The Bitcoin Farmer, a short documentary about Bitcoin mining using solely renewable energy in Ireland. The film was followed by a panel discussion with Cointelegraph’s director of video, Jackson Dumont; global reporter, Joe Hall; co-founder of Bitcoin Film Fest, Pierre Corbin; and Mark Morton and Vince Giltinan from Scilling Digital Mining.

*On stage for the Bitcoin Farmer debrief. From left, Pierre Corbin, Joe Hall, Jackson Dumont, Vince Giltinan and Mark Morton.*

Pierre Corbin told Cointelegraph that he and co-founder Tomek Kolodziejczuk put together the Bitcoin Film Festival because it’s a “cool idea” for the community. Although the film fest was a valuable means of introducing Polish people to Bitcoin, Pierre explained that Bitcoin “has been very popular here in Poland with Ukrainians coming here because of the war.”

Poland borders Ukraine, with as much as 25% of Poland’s immigrant population being Ukrainian. At the outset of the war, Bitcoin donations soared, and Corbin explains that people on the ground used the decentralized tool:

“The human rights foundation helped them [Ukrainians] transfer their wealth into Bitcoin, helping them cross the border here into Poland and then walk them through the process of getting their money back out from Bitcoin ATMs because Poland is the country in Europe with the most Bitcoin ATMs.”

Kolodziejczuk set the ball rolling for the world’s first Bitcoin film festival in November 2022. He was keen to meet Corbin and screen his film, The Great Reset and the Rise of Bitcoin, at a local Bitcoin meetup. However, the idea snowballed. Their encounter and subsequent meetings led to the screening of Bitcoin movies from around the world in one of Eastern Europe’s most iconic buildings.

*The film festival location. Source: Linkedin*

From documentaries shot in El Salvador, like Bond to Unbind, to a snapshot of the impact of Bitcoin on individuals’ lives in The Human B, the film festival showcased the most recent and notable film production efforts. Corbin explained the selection process:

“If you select the right films that tell the right stories, then bringing people from outside will understand Bitcoin from the angle that we want them to understand.”

A crowdfunding campaign was held through the Bitcoin crowdfunding campaign Geyser Fund, in which The Satoshi Mystery by Remi Baillieux won the community voting segment. Meanwhile, Corbin raised satoshis (the smallest denomination of Bitcoin) for his second Bitcoin documentary, The Fight for the US Dollar.

The film festival also piggybacked off a Libertarian conference hosted in Warsaw the same weekend. Libertarians are proponents of minimizing the state’s encroachment on daily life, and were some of the earliest adopters of Bitcoin.

The Bitcoin Film Festival organizers are mulling whether to change the location for the 2024 installment or keep the festival in Warsaw. While bear markets are undoubtedly for building, it appears they’re also for filming.

Magazine: NFT Creator, Sarah Zucker: The Sarah Show’s analog past meets dizzying digital future

Ukraine’s central bank sees both promises and threats in Bitcoin

The central bank of Ukraine sees crypto as a threat to macro-financial stability and a promising opportunity for better payments at the same time.

The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has expressed a mixed stance on cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) after a year of war in the country.

The central bank of Ukraine sees both good and bad in digital assets, taking a more skeptical approach to crypto due to financial and economic issues caused by the invasion, according to the NBU press office.

In April 2022, the NBU prohibited citizens from buying cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin using the national currency, the hryvnia (UAH), only allowing such purchases via foreign currency accounts. The central bank also set a monthly limit on such purchases, prohibiting Ukrainians from buying more crypto than 100,000 UAH ($3,300) worth per month. The restrictions also apply to cross-border peer-to-peer transactions.

The administrative restrictions involving operations with cryptocurrencies in Ukraine are temporary, a press officer for the NBU told Cointelegraph on March 9. The limits will be “gradually weakened as the functioning of the economy and financial market of Ukraine normalizes,” the NBU said, adding:

“The National Bank is taking part in building a system of transparent and understandable regulation, which will contribute to the development of fair and efficient circulation of virtual assets.”

According to the regulator, the specified restrictions were necessary for Ukraine in order to stabilize the situation in the foreign exchange market and preserve macro-financial stability.

“Transactions with cryptocurrencies can be used to bypass currency regulation, in particular — as a channel for unproductive capital outflow from the country, which currently poses threats to macro-financial stability,” the NBU representative stated.

Ukraine’s central bank also sees risks of “substitution of the national currency and the emergence of parallel money circulation.” According to the NBU, such risks are especially high during the war and are beyond the effective control of the regulator. “This can pose a threat to the monetary sovereignty of the state,” the NBU spokesperson noted, adding:

“To minimize such risks, especially during the full-scale war, the National Bank will take a strong position on preventing the narrowing of the scope of application of the hryvnia as the only legal means of payment in Ukraine.”

Despite taking a cautious approach to crypto during the war, Ukraine’s central bank is still bullish on technological innovations related to digial assets. According to the NBU, there are many promises associated with crypto, including better access to financial services, competition in the field of payment services, the attraction of investments, crypto donations and other benefits.

As such, the central bank supports the need to create “civilized conditions for the development of the virtual assets market in Ukraine,” the NBU press office stated.

The latest remarks from the NBU came soon after Yurii Boiko, commissioner of Ukraine’s National Commission on Securities and Stock Market, declared that the war had no impact on the authority’s regulatory stance. According to the official, Ukraine has continued to follow in the footsteps of the European Union concerning digital asset laws.

Russia-Ukraine war: How both sides of the conflict have used crypto to win

While tens of millions worth of crypto were donated to Ukraine in the last year, pro-Kremlin groups have also leveraged digital currencies to buy military supplies and spread propaganda.

In the Russia-Ukraine war, both sides of the conflict have been leveraging cryptocurrencies to achieve the upper hand.

Pro-Ukraine causes have collected around $200 million from crypto donations, showing how borderless and uncensorable money could be useful in time of emergency.

But the Russian side has taken advantage of crypto too: a total of about $5 million was raised by pro-Kremlin groups and propaganda outlets in the course of the invasion, as revealed by a recent Chainalysis report. These entities are small grassroots organizations that have used crypto to bypass Western financial sanctions.

“We’re really looking at individual actors. So somebody who’s on the front, somebody who’s trying to help provide more military resources to the front […] things like bulletproof vests or drones,” explained Andrew Fierman, head of Sanctions Strategy at Chainalysis and one of the authors of the report.

But those numbers don’t take into account ransomware attacks: As shown in Chainalysis data, over $450 million were paid to these entities last year, the majority of which were believed to be based in Russia. Some of them, like the cybercriminal group Conti, have openly supported the Russian government in its war effort.

“When it comes to ransomware payments, a lot of the time bad actors have some sort of political agendas behind what they’re doing,” Fierman pointed out.

To find out more about the impact of crypto in the Ukrainian conflict and how Russia leveraged it to promote its cause, check out the full interview on our YouTube channel and don’t forget to subscribe!

Binance recommends P2P as Ukraine suspends hryvnia use on crypto exchanges

Following the temporary suspension from Ukraine’s central bank, crypto exchanges like Binance and Kuna made official announcements informing investors about the inconvenience.

Ukraine temporarily suspended the use of its national currency, the hryvnia, via banking cards for fiat deposits and withdrawals on crypto exchanges. While the move immediately impacted how investors move funds to and from exchanges, Binance reminded users about how peer-to-peer (P2P) services come in handy when trading cryptocurrencies.

Following the temporary suspension from Ukraine’s central bank, crypto exchanges like Binance and Kuna made official announcements informing investors about the inconvenience. Michael Chobanian, the founder of local crypto exchange Kuna, acknowledged the service disruption. However, he said he would explain the nuances of the development later.

*Kuna founder Michael Chobanian recommends Bitcoin as Ukraine halts hryvnia use on crypto exchanges. Source: Telegram*

Chobanian further pointed out how such regulatory decisions have no impact on the Bitcoin (BTC) ecosystem and added that:

“Regarding the hryvnia card and input/output to the exchange. Yes, it doesn’t work … We are looking for ways out of the situation, under the threat of stopping the entire Ukrainian crypto/card UAH market [translation].”

Binance acknowledged the problem as regulators suspended the use of hryvnia on crypto exchanges. However, Binance had an alternative solution:

“We suggest using the P2P service so that you can continue to use Binance comfortably.”

The crypto exchange utilized the occasion to inform users that P2P services allow users to exchange crypto and fiat currencies directly with other users without needing a middle-person like banks.

Ukraine’s anti-crypto stance comes as a shock considering the country netted over $70 million in crypto donations since the start of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.

*Cryptocurrencies donated to Ukraine wallets provided by the Ukrainian government. Source:* *Chainalysis*

“If we used the traditional financial system, it was going to take days […] We were able to secure the purchase of vital items in no time at all via crypto, and what is amazing is that around 60% of suppliers were able to accept crypto, I didn’t expect this,” said Ukrainian deputy digital minister Alex Bornyakov on Feb. 24.

War had no impact on Ukraine’s regulatory approach to crypto, Kyiv lawmaker says

The adoption of crypto law in Ukraine has been slowed mainly due to the need to adapt it to tax and civil codes, an official told Cointelegraph in an exclusive interview.

Ukraine continues working on cryptocurrency legislation a year after Russia’s invasion. According to Yurii Boiko, commissioner of Ukraine’s National Commission on Securities and Stock Market (NCSSM), the war has not changed its regulatory stance.

Ukraine has continued to follow in the footsteps of the European Union concerning digital asset laws, Boiko told Cointelegraph in an interview.

The commissioner said Ukrainian lawmakers have been working to implement major European crypto regulations, known as the Markets in Crypto Assets regulation, or MiCA.

“The approach to the regulation of the virtual asset market has not changed during the war,” Boiko stated, adding:

“We clearly know where we should go because our path is European integration and the introduction of better EU norms and rules to our markets. Therefore, we confidently go our own way and implement MiCA regulations into the legislative plan.”

Boiko noted that the adoption of crypto legislation in Ukraine had been slowed mainly due to the need to develop necessary amendments to the country’s tax and civil codes. Another factor is Ukraine’s path to European integration, the official said, adding that the NCSSM has been actively cooperating with international colleagues to implement regulations like MiCA.

*National Commission on Securities and Stock Market commissioner, Yurii Boiko*

According to Oleksii Zhmerenetskyi, head of the parliamentary group Blockchain4Ukraine, the country’s legislature started working on regulating the cryptocurrency market in October 2017.

“Unfortunately, at that time, the Verkhovna Rada of the eighth convocation was unable to adopt a crypto law, and only since the election of President Volodymyr Zelensky, Verkhovna Rada of the ninth convocation returned to consideration of it,” Zhmerenetskyi said. The lawmakers subsequently created the Blockchain4Ukraine group together with more than 50 deputies in September 2019, he noted.

Zhmerenetskyi added that a working group under the NSSMC is currently finalizing a package of amendments to the draft law “On Virtual Assets” to adapt it to MiCA, which the European Parliament will vote on in April. As soon as the president adopts and signs the package, the NSSMC and the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) will prepare by-laws, after which Ukraine will officially launch the virtual assets market, he said.

“We plan to do this by the end of this year,” Zhmerenetskyi stated.

As previously reported, Ukraine’s central bank banned Bitcoin (BTC) purchases with the local currency, the Ukrainian hryvnia, in April 2022. The NBU only allowed Ukrainians to buy crypto with foreign currency, with total monthly purchases not exceeding 100,000 hryvnia ($3,300).

Ukraine-based blockchain firm reports company ‘stronger’ one year into war

Russian military forces invaded areas of Ukraine in February 2022, and workers at businesses including Everstake have faced life in shelters and the constant threat of shelling.

According to CEO Sergey Vasylchuk, staking provider Everstake is continuing to move forward despite the continuing military conflict between Ukraine and Russia.

Exactly one year ago today — Feb. 24, 2022 — Russian military forces invaded many areas of Ukraine in what has become one of the largest conflicts in modern Europe since World War II. In the last 12 months, more than 8,000 civilians have died, many Ukrainian cities have been shelled — with at least one almost leveled — and the country continues to be at risk of missile attacks and ground invasions.

Vasylchuk said that prior to Feb. 24, 2022, he had been making preparations to mitigate the risk to Everstake and its employees, but there were still months when many people based in Ukraine were not able to work for various reasons. The Everstake CEO said he felt responsible for the livelihood of around 300 people — roughly 100 workers and their families.

“This […] forced me — I’m the management — to move forward,” said Vasylchuk. “We act mostly instantly. […] We had a lot of help from partners, from other nations, from friends.”

Everstake helped launch the crypto donation platform Aid for Ukraine in March 2022, together with Ukrainian government officials, Kuna and crypto exchange FTX. The website reported more than $60 million in crypto and fiat contributions, going toward initiatives including military equipment, medical gear and humanitarian projects.

“Essentially, [these donations were] a small drop into the budget of what we currently need, but at least it was something,” said Vasylchuk. “Bottom line: Everstake became much stronger.”

According to the CEO, many of Everstake’s employees have continued to work from emergency shelters at various points throughout the last 12 months, facing noise from nearby explosions, loss of electrical power and adjusting to the new “normal”:

“Right now, I can’t imagine what would scare us, what things could challenge us, to impress us — like ‘this is a disaster.’ We definitely could be ready for anything right now.”

Amid attacks from Russian military forces and with a workforce spread across multiple countries, Everstake employees also faced online rumors and conspiracy theories — possibly promulgated by Russia’s propaganda machine — that its platform was used for politically motivated money laundering. Among the theories pushed on social media was one suggesting that Aid for Ukraine’s funds had been funneled to the United States Democratic Party due to the site’s association with FTX and its former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried’s political donations.

Though Vasylchuk described the algorithms leading to the online attacks as “very professional,” he added that he was still shocked that some people in the U.S. were duped into spreading the rumors. North Carolina Representative Madison Cawthorn mentioned the conspiracy theory to his thousands of Twitter followers, and some news outlets picked up on the story.

February 2020: USA is calling all Americans to leave Ukraine ☠️
February 2023: USA is sending the American President to Ukraine ‍♂️
What is going on?

— Sergey | Everstake (@sergattic) February 20, 2023

The Everstake CEO compared the “unlivable” conditions for many businesses in Ukraine to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s enforcement actions in the United States, citing the agency’s recent crackdown on Kraken’s staking program. Though many parts of Ukraine are still under Russian military occupation, U.S. President Joe Biden secretly traveled to Kyiv on Feb. 20 to visit Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Ukrainian pharmacies enable crypto payments via Binance Pay

Ukraine continues adopting cryptocurrency payments with crypto exchange Binance amid the ongoing war with Russia.

Pharmacies in Ukraine are embracing digital payments amid the ongoing war, with a major local chain enabling payments in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC).

ANC Pharmacy, one of the biggest pharmacy chains in the country, has partnered with Binance Ukraine to debut cryptocurrency payments via contactless crypto payment service Binance Pay.

ANC Pharmacy is now enabling its customers to proceed with instant payments while purchasing pharmacy products online, the chain officially announced on Jan. 3.

The pharmacy chain operates more than 1,000 pharmacies across Ukraine, running its own online pharmacy service. According to the announcement, Binance Pay payments will be initially rolled out in Kyiv.

The new payment feature will be available at ANC pharmacies as well as ANC Pharmacy-operated stores like Kopiyka and Shara. “ANC, Kopiyka and Shara are the first pharmacies in Europe to accept crypto,” the announcement states.

In order to proceed with a crypto payment, users need to download the Binance application and then go to ANC’s website. After choosing a product to order online, users will be able to pay using Binance Pay and pick up the order at a preferred location.

A spokesperson for Binance Ukraine did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request to comment.

Binance has been actively pushing its presence in Ukraine over the past few years. In September 2022, Binance partnered with the Ukrainian supermarket chain Varus, allowing customers to pay for grocery purchases through its Binance Pay Wallet.

In early February 2022 — just weeks before Russian forces invaded Ukraine — Binance Ukraine’s general manager, Kirill Khomyakov, told Cointelegraph that launching a Binance Card in Ukraine was one of its top priorities for 2022.

According to Khomyakov, crypto payments via services like Binance Card do not conflict with Ukrainian laws because there is no ban on crypto-derived transactions in the country. At the same time, local laws do not allow direct payments in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

Making the case that Bitcoin is not freedom: Pacific Bitcoin Panel

Is Bitcoin really bringing freedom to the world? Experts discussed the complexities of using Bitcoin as a tool for emancipation at a panel at Pacific Bitcoin.

“Bitcoin (BTC) is Freedom” is one of Bitcoin’s many epithets. Like “Bitcoin is digital gold,” “Bitcoin is property,” or even Bitcoin is absolute digital scarcity, these phrases ricochet around the walls of Bitcoin-themed conference arenas. They’re also memed into eternity on social media.

But one of Bitcoin’s overarching mantras is “Don’t trust, verify.” Rooted in an old Russian proverb, the phrase has come to define the Bitcoin ethos. It suggests rules, ideas, and concepts should be tested, tried and verified. So with that in mind, to what extent is Bitcoin actually freedom? How far can we make the point that Bitcoin is categorically a tool for freedom?

Can Bitcoin set people free?

At the Pacific Bitcoin conference in Los Angeles, hosted by Bitcoin-only exchange Swan Bitcoin, this debate came to life. During a panel discussion succinctly entitled “Bitcoin is Freedom,” three freedom fighters and thinkers explored ways in which Bitcoin might not be as emancipating as it is evangelized online.

Panel discussion on stage at Pacific Bitcoin. Source: Youtube

Craig Warmke, a professor at Northern Illinois University, Yan Pritzker, co-founder and CTO of Swan, and Alex Gladstein, chief strategy officer of the Human Rights Foundation, discussed the nature of magic internet money. Bitcoin does not have a central body, and it is unlikely to change its rules–or hard fork– any time soon. Crucially, Bitcoin fought off a serious threat to a change in source code during the blocksize war, which, in a sense, crystallized the Bitcoin code for at least the near term.

Now, naturally, the relationship between Bitcoin and freedom may vary and can depend on an individual’s personal experiences and perspective. However, it’s taken for granted that Bitcoin is freedom due to its decentralized nature and ability to allow individuals to store and transfer value without the need for intermediaries or government control.

For example, Gladstein cited examples of individuals living in disadvantaged communities around the world. He observed that people who live under dictatorships and very repressive governments could use Bitcoin to achieve their goals and aims regardless of what their government wanted to do or what their government said.

“The reason why Bitcoin is freedom is it gives anybody with internet access and we can get to that property rights.”

Warmke expounded the idea, suggesting that much like a Dandelion flower, Bitcoin is spreading and is beautiful–but “Certain people’s preferences about how they think the world should be leads them to want to–you know–kill it.” In this context, it’s the censorship-resistant properties of Bitcoin that contribute to it being a tool for freedom.

You don’t need Bitcoin–until you do

Nonetheless, for the people that do not understand or do not wish to understand Bitcoin, then it can not set them free. Yan Pritzker tackled this point head-on; he spoke of his home country Ukraine and the response Bitcoin embodied at the outset of the Ukraine – Russia war.

He explained that the Ukrainians “Had never heard of Bitcoin, didn’t care about Bitcoin, didn’t need Bitcoin. They were getting bombed. So that was not a good time to introduce them to Bitcoin. Right.”

“But it turned out that Bitcoin was a great way for us to get money over there just simply because it was the only thing that functioned on a Saturday in the middle of the night. That was the way that we could get money over to Ukraine and then convert it into local currency and get them to the local currency.”

He also nodded to another one of Bitcoin’s catchphrases, “You don’t need Bitcoin until you do.” In this instance, people who didn’t understand or care about Bitcoin were suddenly helped by Bitcoin when they most needed it. And as a result, their level of freedom was improved thanks to Bitcoin.

Warmke shared that while Bitcoin has excellent properties of money, its low penetration in modern society and the fact that “It’s not easy to use privately” mean that sometimes Bitcoin falls short in real-world situations. Take the Canadian trucker protests, in which money was successfully raised using Bitcoin, but not all of it was delivered:

“Some of it was confiscated. And part of the reason why is even if you might want to lay this at the fault of the people who are giving them Bitcoin or who had the bitcoin, so you blame the user.”

It can be extrapolated that for Bitcoin to serve as an outright tool for economic freedom, it must be used privately. And on top of that, it must be used with care and due attention.

Furthermore, there are “Not yet very many circular economies. And so if you want actually to spin the bitcoin that you receive, it’s quite hard.” Bitcoin Circular economies describe areas such as El Zonte, or Bitcoin Beach, El Salvador in which Bitcoin is used almost exclusively, and there is no need to cash out into fiat money. The offramps into fiat money could undermine economic freedom as they expose a weakness for state capture.

Literacy

The three Bitcoin advocates highlighted Bitcoin’s use case in emerging markets, where Bitcoin adoption is soaring at arguably faster rates than in the developed world. However, emerging markets are plagued with poor literacy levels and unreliable internet connections. These are significant hurdles to overcome to adopt freedom money, as Bitcoin requires internet–and a rudimentary understanding of maths and typically, English.

Sending Bitcoin without access the internet is now a reality. Source: Twitter

Gladstein agreed, explaining: “Bitcoin relies on, as you’ve seen yourself, the other journeys of literacy and of Internet access.” The Human Rights Foundation CSO explained that the journey to literacy and to internet access is on a positive growthtrend:

“But the good news is it looks like by the end of the decade of this decade that even in countries like Sudan and Senegal, way more than half of all of the people in those countries will know how to read and they’ll have Internet access. So I think the potential is quite vast to make a difference.”

Plus, technical advances on Bitcoin geared to those living in the developing world are bringin more and more users online, without using the internet. For the illiterate, the solution lies with wallet developers in ensuring that users can still use Bitcoin.

But what about the price? The price per Bitcoin is down 70% from its highs. A loss of such extravagant amounts is paralyzing, not freeing. Philosopher Warmke invited the audience to lower their time preference and avoid focusing on short-term gains.

“In the long run this [Bitcoin] is a very, very freedom enabling thing because it does actually bring people that option to to have something of their own.”

Finally, Warmke also joked that his level of personal freedom has decreased since becoming a Bitcoin advocate because he checks the price too much!

Gladstein and Prtizker finished the panel on a sobering note. Gladstein explained that for some people living in authoritarian regimes, Bitcoin “Literally means life or death. In some cases, it is literally the only way they can do what they can do.” In this context, Pritzker suggested “To spend more time looking at other countries and what’s happening there. And I think you’re going to see that Bitcoin is enabling freedom in a big way.”

Crypto OTC trading to get traction due to FTX fiasco, exec says

The FTX crash could trigger a bigger demand for crypto OTC services as investors are looking for alternative crypto exchange methods amid weak trust in CEXs.

Before the rise of centralized exchanges (CEXs), over-the-counter (OTC) trading was the go-to method to buy or sell cryptocurrency for many crypto investors. The FTX collapse could trigger a bigger demand for crypto OTC services as investors are looking for alternative methods to convert from and to fiat due to weaker trust in CEXs.

Cointelegraph spoke with BestChange, a Russian OTC crypto exchange aggregator, to learn more about the current state of OTC markets.

“The role of OTC is sometimes underestimated amid the all-encompassing marketing of centralized exchanges,” BestChange chief analyst Nikita Zuborev said. According to the exec, OTCs often act as an entry point to crypto for most users.

BestChange users often resort to the services of OTC exchangers — portals that act as fiat onramps to crypto — in order to replenish the balance on a crypto exchange or sell their crypto, Zuborev told Cointelegraph.

“If for the Central European countries and the countries of North America there are quite convenient ways of direct replenishment from a bank card, then for the countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia there are no such options, and exchangers remain the only convenient way to work with cryptocurrency,” Zuborev stated.

The exec also pointed out that the latest industry events could have a positive effect on the crypto OTC segment, stating:

“Thanks to the fiasco of the FTX executives, our segment could see a significant influx of users even outside of our traditional market. We expect that 2023 could be the year of decentralization and accelerated development of decentralized apps.”

Founded in 2007, BestChange enables crypto-to-fiat transactions through Visa and Mastercard cards as well as services like PayPal, Payoneer, Skrill and others. Currently operating under the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation, BestChange plans to move its headquarters to Dubai gradually.

The executive stressed that the relocation has nothing to do with the ongoing geopolitical problems or other issues in Russia, as BestChange has been planning to expand beyond the country for a while.

Additionally, BestChange doesn’t expect any pressure from the global community in terms of sanctions, according to Zuborev. “The UAE continues to remain neutral in geopolitical matters, and secondly, the format of our business does not involve the handling of money,” he said. BestChange-listed OTC crypto exchangers are located in the Baltic countries or central Europe and should comply with local regulations, he noted.

BestChange serves several countries, including post-Soviet states like Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Belarus. According to data from SimilarWeb, users from Russia and Ukraine make the biggest amount of visits on BestChange, with 48% and 15% of traffic coming from these countries, respectively.

“Most centralized exchanges are under pressure from European and North American regulators, and our segment is mostly represented by small local services that obey the laws of the country of location so they can serve Russians, Ukrainians, Europeans, Africans, residents of Asia, Oceania independently of each other,” he stated.

According to Zuborev, global sanctions against Russia have not had a negative impact on BestChange’s OTC market services but even have driven more adoption instead.