Today in Crypto: Russia Moves Ahead With Crypto Regs Bill; Sling TV to Accept Crypto Payments for Subscriptions Through BitPay

The Russian Ministry of Finance is moving ahead on its plan to regulate cryptocurrencies, CoinDesk reported Monday (Feb. 21).

A bill was introduced to parliament on Friday (Feb. 18), which was based on the approved roadmap from numerous government bodies. As the report notes, the Ministry of Finance is taking a very different approach to crypto within the country.

Unlike the Ministry of Finance, the Bank of Russia is against regulating cryptocurrencies — instead, the Bank of Russia wants to see crypto mining and trading both fully banned. The bank has been working on its central bank digital currency (CBDC), the digital ruble, and has suggested fines for trading and mining of crypto up to 500,000 rubles.

In other news, crypto exchange FTX is debuting its own gaming unit to help get people to get more into cryptocurrencies, blockchain and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), Bloomberg wrote Monday.

The program will be called FTX Gaming and will operate via the FTX U.S. affiliate, and it will have a “crypto-as-a-service” platform. Through that, gaming companies will be able to roll out tokens and offer support for NFTs.

This move comes after FTX announced last year that it planned to invest $100 million along with two partners to spur integration of the Solana blockchain into video games.

The crypto sector has been trying to integrate more with the gaming industry, which has caused controversy from both fans and developers who are against “play-to-earn” models, where gamers can benefit financially from blockchain-based games.

Meanwhile, Gunnercooke, a London-based law firm, has become the first U.K.-headquartered firm to take cryptocurrency as payment, City A.M. reported Monday.

The decision comes after several medium-sized U.S. law firms began accepting crypto payments in 2017. Gunnercooke has grown rapidly over the past decade, and the firm reportedly has a fixed-fee pay structure and a decentralized business model.

The company had a deal with Coinpass, a British crypto exchange, to make all of this happen. The firm said it received its first ethereum payment last week from ether staking firm Attestant.

Read more: Sling TV to Accept Crypto Payments for Subscriptions Through BitPay