Finance and Economics

Russia’s Crimean Peninsula to Embrace Cryptocurrency

The Crimean Vice Prime Minister has hinted that his region is considering adopting an official cryptocurrency to help attract global investment in one of Russia’s historic resort regions. Currently tourism and agriculture, including Crimea’s rejuvenated wine industry make up the biggest civilian components of the local economy, but all of that […]

Turkcoin is Coming: Ankara Ready To Jump Into Cryptocurrency Market in Bold Soft Power Move

Turkey is working on preliminary steps to launch its own state sanctioned cryptocurrency. A Turkcoin would be the first such crypto sponsored by a state which is not under US sanctions. Heavily sanctioned but oil rich Venezuela has just launched El Petro, a cryptocurrency backed by the countries reserves of […]

Venezuela’s “El Petro” Has Raised $732 Million As President Maduro Vows to Take On “Superman” - the US Dollar

Venezuela’s new oil backed cryptocurrency has raised over $735 million in less than 24 hours of a public pre-sale. The new cryptocurrency which will be pegged to the South American nation’s vast oil reserves looks to change the game in both the world of US sanctions and the international crypto […]

Malaysian Company Set to Launch Gold-Backed Halal Cryptocurrency

The Malaysian company HelloGold is preparing to launch a new gold-backed cryptocurrency called GOLDX. The new crypto is set to become available for purchase later this year, in Thailand. While the use of cryptocurrencies is becoming hotly debated among world governments, it appears there is also a religions angle. Islamic banking systems […]

Russia’s Popular Telegram Messenger Jumps Into Cryptocurrency Market

Pavel Durov, the Russian entrepreneur behind the VK social media network and Telegram instant messenger and international calling service, has raised $850 to develop his own blockchain network that will serve as the transactional mechanism behind a new Telegram based cryptocurrency. Telegram has already revolutionised the instant messaging world through its […]

Russia’s Latest Investment In Saudi Arabia Continues To Shift Balance of Power In The Middle East Away From US

With little fanfare, Russia and Saudi Arabia have reached an agreement wherein Moscow will invest in the forthcoming IPO of Aramco, the state-owned Saudi energy giant that is about to go public. Early indications are that Russian investors will purchase substantial shares of the 5% of Aramco’s total public value […]

Chechen Republic Leader Ramzan Kadyrov Supports Cryptocurrencies

With nations as diverse as India, South Korea, China Germany, France and the US have publicly expressed their worries over the increased popularity of cryptocurrencies (including the prominent Bitcoin), others including Venezuela, Russia and Iran have expressed their desire to enter the market of state sanctioned cryptocurrencies whose transactions are […]