Today in Crypto: Russian Investors Continue Crypto Trading; Bain Capital Debuts $560M Crypto Fund

Russian investors will likely be conducting transactions in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in spite of sanctions, Bloomberg reported Tuesday (March 8).

The overall flow isn’t that large, but data from Kaiko, a blockchain analytics firm, showed the ruble-dominated bitcoin trading volume rising as of Saturday (March 5) to the highest level so far in 2022.

Most ruble crypto trading has been conducted via Tether’s stablecoin, which is backed one-to-one with fiat.

Meanwhile, Bain Capital Ventures, one of the world’s largest startup-investment firms, will roll out a new fund focused on cryptocurrency, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.

The fund will be for $560 million.

Bain Capital has been investing in crypto for seven years now, including investing in BlockFi, decentralized finance company Compound and Digital Currency Group, which has numerous crypto-related businesses.

According to managing partner Stefan Cohen, the idea is to capitalize on what the company sees as “a multidecade technology shift.”

Elsewhere, Thailand is easing its tax rules for crypto trading until the end of 2023, with hopes to improve the industry, a Coindesk report said Tuesday.

The country’s finance minister, Arkhom Termpittayapaisith, said trades of digital assets on government-approved exchanges will not have to pay the 7% value-added tax (VAT), and transfers making use of Thailand’s central bank digital currency will also be exempt.

In other news, Crypto.com seems to be tightening access to its lending business, as it has told customers in “excluded jurisdictions” that they have until March 15 to repay loans, Coindesk wrote Tuesday.

The message sent to two customers, one French and one German, reportedly says that lending “is no longer supported in your jurisdiction. For this reason, we are required to cancel your current loans.”

Finally, WalletConnect, which connects Ethereum wallets, has raised $11 million in a Series A round, Coindesk reported Tuesday.

The capital will go towards scaling wallet interoperability as well as developing a generalized messaging layer.