Mail.ru allowed to pay for advertising in bitcoins

What's happened

Mail.ru Group allowed to pay with bitcoin and cryptocurrency bitcoin cash for advertising on its projects.

• It will also be possible to pay for advertising in VKontakte and Odnoklassniki with cryptocurrency, as well as in the Mail.ru mail service.
• The company promises that the owners of sites and applications that participate in the network will also be able to receive income in cryptocurrency in the near future.

Why is it important

• Mail.Ru Group is one of the dominant players in the Russian online advertising market. In 2017, its advertising revenue amounted to 23.7 billion rubles. According to ZenithOptimedia estimates, this means that the market share of Mail.Ru Group is 17.8%.

Why is this weird

• In Russia, digital currencies are not yet regulated in any way, and the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank are arguing about what the corresponding law will look like. The Ministry of Finance proposes to allow the circulation of cryptocurrencies on exchanges. The Central Bank believes that the sale of cryptocurrencies should be allowed only outside the territory of Russia.
• One of several points on which both regulators agree: the use of cryptocurrencies as a means of payment will be prohibited, and the Ministry of Finance even proposes to introduce criminal liability for this.
• However, while there is no law, cryptocurrencies can be used in any way - even to avoid property liability. For example, at the end of February, the court banned the collection of cryptocurrency savings from the debtor.

What do I get from this?

Some buyers will probably find it convenient to pay for advertising with cryptocurrency (this will avoid commissions when converting to real money). But after the adoption of the law, this practice may be illegal.

Artem Gubenko