Bitcoin Soars In Japan, But What’s ‘Synthetic Currency?’

Russia’s love-hate relationship with digital currency continues. One minute officials are threatening to punish bitcoin operatives and traders, the next minute they are suggesting that citizens can use bitcoin ‘in areas where such activities are legal.’
A few days ago, Cryptocoinsnews said that Russia’s announcement that it would penalize whoever is involved in bitcoin operations would ‘end two years of speculation’ on Russia’s stance. It didn’t. At that time, Russia considered cryptocurrencies to be channels for money laundering and other forms of criminal activity. Now, Russia has overcome its fears and has opened the first digital currency exchange.
The new exchange will provide 24/7 currency exchange services and, according to News BTC, the Russian exchange is an actual office. This could encourage the patronage of traditional consumers who are used to financial exchange through a bank or other service provider by easing the transition to digital transactions.
This might be an effort by the government to be on top of the bitcoin cyber world before its users disappear into the deep dark beyond of the dark net, and the government is closely monitoring the digital currency space in the interests of forming a regulatory framework later this year.
For now, traders can only sell on the exchange until the exchange is officially registered. One thing of note, however, is that if Russia is anything like Japan, regulation could have quite an effect on cryptocurrency trading.

This post was published at Pymnts on August 19, 2016.