Russia Announces ‘Regulation Lite’ As Bitcoin Pole Vaults To $13,000 (Then Crashes)

Never a dull moment.

Just days ahead of the Cboe futures launch, Bitcoin “launched” above $12,000 late Tuesday evening and believe it or not, that’s not even the amusing part.

Rather, the amusing part came when it proceeded to rally another $950 very nearly hitting $13,000 only to abruptly careen lower by $600 in the space of about 2 minutes at six in the morning, New York time:

So as far as market cap goes, this thing pole vaulted up to $220 billion:

On Wednesday, Russia’s Deputy Finance Minister Alexey Moiseev told reporters that a draft of bill on mining and ICOs will be presented to the Finance Minister this month.

Apparently, the ministry and the central bank have agreed upon what they’re calling “regulation lite.” This will protect ICO investors, will restrict circulation of tokens after an ICO, and will only allow users to return it to its issuer.

The Finance Ministry is also working on another bill that will cover money surrogates although there is no time line on that. Although Bitcoin won’t be mentioned, Moiseev said that “selling bitcoins to one another in Russia won’t be permitted, but also won’t be banned.”

As far as paying for goods and services, Bitcoin will be deemed a money surrogate, as the country’s constitution allows only ruble payments for purchases.

Draw your own conclusions on that.

And meanwhile…

Blockchaiiiiinnnnn. We're rolling out bitcoin to more of our most active customers. Swipe right from your Cash Card to see if you have it. #satoshi pic.twitter.com/iMxHg1vRAg

— Cash App (@CashApp) December 6, 2017