Market Watch | Bitcoin | $11,493 | 7 day: +5.6% | | Ethereum | $379 | 7 day: +7.3% | | All crypto | $363b | 7 day: +6.1% | | Bitcoin dominance | 58.7% | 7 day: -0.1% | Prices as of 4 p.m. EDT
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 Bank of Russia leaders The Bank of Russia wants to cap cryptocurrency purchases for most Russians at $8,000 annually. Russian GDP per capita is roughly half U.S. GDP per capita. - The Bank of Russia is planning to limit annual cryptocurrency purchases for non-professional investors, according to a statement published on Oct. 14. This proposal was issued as an explanatory note from the central bank.
- The latest statement from the Bank of Russia suggests that unqualified investors may not be allowed to invest more than 600,000 rubles annually ($7,800 at today's exchange rate).
- The two-page statement could become an addendum to a legislative bill in the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia, meaning that the purchase cap would become effective on January 1, 2021.
- The statement mentions that the Bank of Russia has opened a public comment period from Oct. 13 to 27 regarding the proposed restrictions.
CoinTelegraph 
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 Emblem of Roskomnadzor Russian DSPs are preventing domestic access to a leading peer-to-peer bitcoin exchange, LocalBitcoins. - For context, LocalBitcoins processed $2.9b in transactions during 2019 globally.
- LocalBitcoins assists offline, in-person, cash transactions and does not publicly delineate transactions by country. Russia was rumored to be LocalBitcoins' most active country.
- Russia's telecommunications services have recently blocked citizen access to LocalBitcoins' website and app. (When Russia-located users attempt to access the exchange, they see a blank page censored by the Roskomnadzor, Russia's telecom giant. )
- Russian traders have to use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to access the now-censored crypto exchange's portal.
- Roskomnadzor censored LocalBitcoins four years ago. The Russian web censor also blacklisted another exchange, Binance Russia, in July.
Decrypt
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 Vladimir Putin Russia continues its research into a central bank digital currency (CBDC). - Russian central bank, the Bank of Russia, shared a consultation paper on Oct. 13, shedding light on the government's plan for a proposed national CBDC, a digital ruble.
- The bank says the digital ruble will coexist with cash and non-cash rubles, as just another form of fiat.
- The paper suggests that the ruble's digital version would possess the same features and functions as money. Russians would access it through approved digital wallets.
- The report says that a national CBDC would limit the risks associated with foreign cryptocurrencies, and contribute to the country's macroeconomics.
- The Bank of Russia claims that its forthcoming CBDC would be a store of value, unit of account, and medium of exchange.
CoinTelegraph
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Decrypt publishes a status report on the oft-delayed, long-awaited bitcoin ETF. There is still no bitcoin ETF trading on U.S. stock exchanges. - ETFs are distinct from trusts.
- There are several cryptocurrency trusts that are listed on U.S. stock exchanges. Grayscale Ethereum Trust (OTCQX:ETHE) holds over 2% of all circulating Ethereum, for example.
- The SEC is concerned about bitcoin ETFs allowing market manipulation due to their unique mechanics and sizeable influence.
- The SEC has repeatedly rejected ETF applications, including at least nine applications from companies like Bitwise, Wilshire Phoenix, and VanEck.
- Last year, VanEck Securities and SolidX Management collaborated on a limited product similar to a bitcoin ETF. The companies aimed to bypass SEC's orders by applying for a separate SEC exemption to sell bitcoin-based trust shares to institutional investors only. However, the proposal for a pseudo-ETF failed, and VanEck has closed it.
- The SEC rejected Bitwise's latest bitcoin ETF application as recently as Oct. 9.
Decrypt
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An op-ed published at Trustnodes has attracted attention for name-calling China's central bank digital currency (CBDC) a "totalitarian nightmare." China's digital yuan is called Digital Currency/Electronic Payment (DC/EP). - Writer's note: A nightmare? Or are CBDCs simply the way of the future? CBDCs simply extend a country's existing fiat system, and provide some marketing. My only view on DC/EP is that it is certainly a pillar of China's Digital Belt & Road Initiative, one of the most important stories in the crypto industry, and could become an important way for China to increase global trade denominated in its fiat.
- The op-ed claims that DC/EP's only innovative feature is that China's central bank and state-owned Big Five banks have jointly provided its monetary database.
- Expectedly, China's government is advertising the digital version of the yuan as a "strong competitor" to bitcoin.
- DC/EP works on a master/slave-type system whereby commercial banks and the PBoC share one ledger. The central bank will act as a master since it can issue digital yuans into the ledger, whereas non-Big Five commercial banks will act as slaves since they can only read the central bank's ledger inputs.
- The article suggests that the public will have no information regarding what PBoC and the Big Five are doing. They will simply receive an e-wallet from the government with customer numbers and some addresses.
- Using this system will allow banks to monitor the citizens and enhance authoritative power within centralized committees, which opposes the decentralization ideals of many crypto enthusiasts.
Trustnodes
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The international finance regulator, Financial Stability Board (FSB), has published ten recommendations regarding stablecoins. - FSB, the G20's transcontinental financial watchdog, released a detailed report on Oct. 13 for its member countries discussing the regulations, supervision, and oversight needed regarding stablecoins.
- The FSB warns that the decentralized nature of stablecoins could pose a risk to financial stability, if adopted on a global scale.
- FSB agrees that a so-called global stablecoin or "GSC" has the potential to bring payment efficiency and financial inclusion, but recommends that G20 members prevent stablecoins from exploiting opportunities for regulatory arbitrage.
- The report highlights that the technology used for stablecoin transfers poses cybersecurity risks and highlights the FSB's pleas for cross-border payments infrastructure, as commissioned by the G20.
Financial Stability Board
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 Coindesk's lower-third namecard for Vitalik Buterin Coindesk calls Vitalik Buterin "the creator of Ethereum" and publishes Buterin's plea for exchanges, wallets, and miners to use his new scaling solution, roll-ups. There are at least eight co-founders of Ethereum. - Buterin was introduced and titled in his lower-third namecard as "creator of Ethereum" during Coindesk's virtual conference this week.
- The co-founder and current chief scientist of Ethereum shared his enthusiasm for the "layer 2" scaling solution known as "roll-ups," as a way to reduce network congestion.
- Buterin presented during Coindesk's Invest: Ethereum Economy virtual conference Oct. 14.
- The Russian-Canadian programmer sees roll-ups as a primary solution to scaling Ethereum.
- Roll-ups keep transaction data on-chain while transferring "computational loads" off-chain. Even though Ethereum blockchain sharding (a technique of scaling the base-layer of the blockchain) is years away from public launch, Buterin believes that users should start supporting roll-ups as soon as possible.
- Due to decentralized finance protocols, the transaction ("gas") fees on Ethereum's blockchain have skyrocketed during recent months.
- Buterin assured users that ETH 2.0 will be launched soon. He praised both forms of roll-ups (the two versions are Zero-Knowledge and Optimistic), saying that roll-ups can quadruple Ethereum's throughput.
Coindesk
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 Revolut, the U.K.'s Robinhood-like digital bank and crypto-friendly app, plans to apply for a banking charter in California. - London-based financial technology company Revolut shared plans to apply for a U.S. banking license under the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and California's Division of Financial Institutions, as reported by CNBC on Oct. 13.
- In February 2020, Revolut raised $500m in a funding round led by Silicon Valley-based VC firm TCV.
- Revolut would allow lenders to operate throughout the U.S. via interstate agreements, although Revolut's charter would still be with California. Revolut initially had partnered with Metropolitan Commercial Bank for its U.S. launch.
Reuters
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Quick Hits: - Bitcoin mining machine manufacturing company Ebang International Holdings Inc. signed an Expression of Interest Tender Letter to acquire shares of an undisclosed New-Zealand based financial company, offering wholesale and generic financial broker and wealth management services.
- Kapsoo Oh, Chairman of the Korea Blockchain Association, urged the South Korean Government to postpone virtual asset taxation until Jan. 1, 2023. His plea concerns the Income Tax Act Partial Amendment (Proposition 3324).
- Chinese cryptocurrency exchange Huobi announces the integration of Banxa, a fiat-to-crypto onramp. The service will allow users of Huobi's hbg.com residing in the U.K., Australia, and EU to buy cryptocurrencies using fiat payment methods starting Oct. 15.
- Digital currency investment company Grayscale Investments published its Q3 2020 report, highlighting that it has added another $1b into its investment products.
- As Apple device adoption grows in the enterprise, organizations are looking for ways to seamlessly manage and secure devices while extending the world-class Apple experience users expect.*
*This is a sponsored post.
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 |  | Written and curated by wide-eyed bitcoin watcher since $1, Aaron Wise. Streaming headline junkie, Associated Press fanboy, eye-strained news terminal watcher, 2017 founder of Cryptocurrency Newsfeed. Temporarily based in Florida while awaiting the construction of cryptopia. |  | | Editor | Edited by Eduardo Garcia in New York. Eduardo is writing an illustrated book about climate change that will be published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Bylines in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, Scientific American, and others. In one of his previous lives, Eduardo worked as a Reuters correspondent in Latin America for nearly a decade. | |
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