Global Wrap: Russia Wants To Imprison Bitcoin Users

This week's look at payments stories from around the globe stops at the U.K., Russia, Hungary and the European Union. Choose your currency carefully in Russia these days as the Russian Finance Ministry doesn't mess around. The Ministry wants to punish anyone who uses Bitcoins with a 500,000 ruble (about $6,500 U.S.) fine and two years in a "corrective labor" camp, according to a report in Crypto Coins News. The story says that corrective labor is just what it sounds like: "a combination of penal detention and forced labor."

After the Hungarian Competition Authority slapped MasterCard with a HUF 88 million (about $318,000 U.S.) fine "for abusing its market position," the card brand said it would appeal the fine, according to a report in The Budapest Business Journal. And the EU wants to cap cash payments in an anti-terror move.