Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) raided nine illegal cryptocurrency exchange offices in the Moscow City business district on Aug. 7, 2026, and detained more than 20 employees, according to a Coinpost report carried by Techub News. The authorities accuse the exchangers of helping move fraud proceeds to Ukraine by selling cryptocurrencies to local residents and sending the money to accounts specified by the Ukrainian side. Russia's Interior Ministry has opened criminal proceedings under fraud provisions, and a conviction carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. The exchange offices reportedly relied on young people from Russian regions with limited financial literacy, many of whom worked remotely. Some staff members were even tricked by superiors posing as FSB officers. Another group, aged 18 to 25, was responsible for collecting money from victims and handing it to the exchange offices. Investigators are still determining the full scope of the case, verifying testimony and exploring options to compensate victims.

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) searched nine unregistered cryptocurrency exchange service providers in Moscow and detained more than 20 employees at the Moscow International Business Center. The FSB said the companies were suspected of using crypto assets to move funds obtained through fraud abroad. The searches were part of a joint operation with Russia's Interior Ministry. According to the FSB, the exchanges converted money stolen from Russian telephone scam victims into cryptocurrency and transferred the funds to accounts the FSB says belong to Ukrainian processors. Russia's Interior Ministry has opened a criminal investigation into large-scale fraud. Under Russian law, the offense carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years. The FSB said it is continuing to identify victims and assess possible compensation.

Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, is preparing to widen the scope of SORM, the country’s operational investigative measures system, to cover cryptocurrency exchanges and gaming platforms, according to a report by The Bell cited by ChainCatcher. Alexander Samoilov, an official from the FSB’s 12th Center, disclosed the plan at the KROS annual conference on network technologies held in Sochi in May 2026. Under the proposal, affected platforms would be required to install the system and share user data with security agencies in real time. Samoilov also said that 10 years after the 2016 passage of the Yarovaya law, implementation of the relevant provisions stands at only about 80%. The Bell added that market participants view even that estimate as too high. In a separate finding, The Bell reported that after the Crocus City Hall terrorist attack, the FSB’s Second Service used large-scale inspections of SORM systems to tighten its control over Russia’s internet.

Russian law enforcement agencies raided several cryptocurrency exchanges in Moscow’s Federation East Tower on July 31 as part of an investigation into a fraud case involving 144 million rubles, or about $2 million. Dozens of people were detained during the operation, and eight suspects have been placed in pre-trial detention. According to the report, victims were deceived by individuals posing as agents of Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, and were persuaded to transfer large sums of money through the platforms under investigation. Offices linked to the case have been temporarily closed while investigators continue their work. The authorities are now tracking the movement of the stolen funds. The case was cited by Techub, which referenced CryptoBriefing.

Australia’s online safety regulator has launched civil penalty proceedings against Telegram in the Federal Court, seeking penalties of up to A$54.6 million, or about $38 million, over allegations that the platform failed to detect and remove known pro-terror material. The case follows a year-long investigation by the eSafety Commissioner, which claims content linked to the 2019 Christchurch mosque shooting and the 2022 Buffalo supermarket attack remained available on the app, and that Telegram’s terms of service did not ban pro-terror material across all parts of the platform. eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said Telegram had maintained a permissive environment where extremist content was easy to find. She also said Australia could ask the federal court to cease the service in the country, though those powers have never been used. The filing adds to mounting legal pressure around Telegram and founder Pavel Durov, who is also facing separate cases in Russia and France. Telegram has rejected the allegations and said it will fight them in court. The lawsuit will also test Australia’s 2021 law requiring platforms to keep pro-terror content off their networks.

Anthropic said an unreleased version of its flagship model, Claude Mythos Preview, discovered two previously unknown attacks on cryptographic algorithms, including one targeting HAWK, a post-quantum digital signature system that had advanced to the third round of the U.S. NIST competition. According to the report, the attack cuts the cost of stealing HAWK’s smallest key from 2^64 operations to 2^38, or about 67 million times less work. Anthropic said fixing the issue would roughly double key sizes, weakening one of HAWK’s main selling points: compact keys and fast signing. The report also stressed that HAWK has never been deployed and that Bitcoin still uses ECDSA, so no live crypto system was broken by the finding. Even so, the development matters because a broad push toward quantum-resistant crypto infrastructure assumes that the replacement schemes are themselves secure. The newsletter also covered a range of market and policy developments, including gains in BTC and ETH ahead of the FOMC, public backing for the CLARITY Act from BlackRock, Fidelity, Franklin Templeton, Goldman Sachs, and SoFi, fresh ETF flow data, Zcash’s Ironwood activation, and a burst of meme coin trading activity led by PIPEDOG on Robinhood chain.

Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, said on July 29 that it had opened a criminal case against Telegram founder Pavel Durov and issued an international arrest warrant accusing him of “assisting terrorist activity.” According to the Russian authorities, the case centers on Telegram’s alleged failure to remove content used by Ukrainian intelligence units and what the FSB described as extremist groups to coordinate sabotage, cyber fraud, and armed attacks. Russian state newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta and Interfax reported that the FSB claims Telegram has been linked to more than 153,000 crimes since 2022, spanning terrorism, extremism, and sabotage. The charge carries a maximum prison sentence of 15 years in Russia. Durov, who lives in Dubai and holds French and UAE citizenship, has previously said Russian authorities were trying to “fabricate a pretext” for a full ban on Telegram. The move comes after months of restrictions on the platform in Russia, including throttled download speeds and blocked video and voice calls. The report said the case is separate from Durov’s 2024 arrest in France and the investigation tied to that incident.

An IMF working paper says stablecoins can act as an alternative dollar channel in economies with restricted FX access, while also making dollar shortages more visible and increasing the risk of disorderly outflows.