Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell spoke about cryptocurrency regulations in a House Financial Services Committee meeting last week, giving credit to the Russia-Ukraine war as a highlight for the need of regulatory oversight in digital assets.

“[The Ukraine-Russia conflict] underscored the need for Congressional action on digital finance including cryptocurrencies,” Powell said. “We have this burgeoning industry which has many parts to it, and there isn’t in place the kind of regulatory framework that needs to be there.”

Powell spoke to the committee about potential detrimental uses of crypto. He referred to “malicious actors” and “terrorists” as some of those who use digital assets to commit crimes, on top of crypto’s potential to allow Russia to get out of the barrage of international sanctions but against their fiat currency, the Ruble.

“This will be something that we will invest a fair amount of time and expertise … to get it right,” Powell said, emphasizing that “we have not decided to do it.”

“We have this burgeoning industry which has many parts to it, and there isn’t in place the kind of regulatory framework that needs to be there,” said Powell. “It was probably no different with railroads or telephones or the internet, and ultimately what’s needed is a framework, and in particular ways to prevent these unbacked cryptocurrencies from serving as a vehicle for terrorist finance and just general criminal behavior.”

Cryptocurrency is one of the last resorts the Russian regime has left to save their economy. They have been cutoff from western markets and have been removed from SWIFT, the international payments system that facilitates cross border transactions.

Democratic Senators wrote on Wednesday to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, in an effort to vocalize concerns that the use of cryptocurrencies could be a loophole around international monetary sanctions against Russia.

“These concerns have become even more urgent given the sanctions imposed on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren alongside other democrats wrote in their letter to Yellen.

Rumors have swirled about the Biden administration announcing some type of government system when it comes to the regulation of digital assets. No such announcement has come about.

Wedge, a ‘smart’ debit card that lets users pay for everyday purchases with any asset, announced a strategic partnership with Sila Inc., a  fintech software platform that provides payment infrastructure as a service. The partnership between the two companies adds a new and improved layer of speed and safety for Wedge customers.

“The integration with Sila puts Wedge in a position to scale our offering and change the way people think about daily spending,” said Billy Roberts, CEO of Wedge. “Instead of moving money around on antiquated and expensive ACH rails with limited capacities to ledger funds between digital wallets and hold funds for our users, Sila allows us to move funds more safely, more quickly, and at a much better scale than competitors. And our users benefit with more robust and reliable digital wallets where they can securely hold cash.”

While Wedge’s executives spoke of their product changing the infrastructures of spending for an everyday consumer, those from Sila spoke more broadly, highlighting innovation’s impact on the larger financial landscape.

“Fintech is changing the way people spend, save and move money,” said Shamir Karkal, co-founder and CEO, Sila Inc. “Sila is supporting companies that work on what’s next in the payments space.  Partnering with Wedge, we created a vision for how smart spending solutions can really look at scale. We’re excited to bring our companies together to achieve this innovation.”

Wedge changes how consumers use their assets. Things like stocks, ETF, and cryptocurrencies are enabled for use in everyday purchases. Wedge claims to “put money to work in the markets without sacrificing liquidity.” According to them, this model allows their customers to capitalize on market movements any time they make a purchase.

The concept of actively spending investments is not new. Robinhood, one of the world’s largest digital trading platforms, has begun sending its users debit cards.

Regulators have been historically weary of companies that provide bank-like services but aren’t regulated as such. As digital assets become more accepted both domestically and abroad, it’s likely to see crypto-payment mergers moving forward.

As the world market responds to the conflict in Eastern Europe, digital assets are being used as a way for Russian citizens to preserve their savings. As the Russian Ruble is bombarded by international sanctions, everyday Russians have been turning to digital assets, at least partially through Binance, as a way to preserve their personal finances.

When asked about their operations inside Russia, a Binance spokesperson told CNBC that the crypto exchange will not halt operations there on a whim. “We are not going to unilaterally freeze millions of innocent users’ accounts,” said an unnamed Binance spokesperson.

With Binance allowing Russian transactions, the numbers speak for themselves. Coinbase is now showcasing Bitcoin prices peaking over $44,000 as of Tuesday morning.

“Crypto is meant to provide greater financial freedom for people across the globe,” the spokesperson continued. “To unilaterally decide to ban people’s access to their crypto would fly in the face of the reason why crypto exists.”

Other cryptocurrencies saw quick growth, as Ethereum and Dogecoin both jumped 10% and 6%, respectively. Tether, a widely used and heavily scrutinized stablecoin, has seen record highs of Rouble-based transactions, with $29.4 million worth of trades tripling pre-invasion numbers.

As confidence in their fiat currency dwindles, the integrity of decentralized assets may provide digitally-active Russians a way to preserve whatever savings they may have. The Moscow Exchange, Russia’s stock market, has remain closed as a run on the banks has begun across Russian cities. As an incentive for citizens to keep their money in the banks, interest rates in Russia have soared to over 20%.

Investors appear to be “trying to get out of the ruble” due to its “drastic devaluation after all the sanctions,” said Bendik Schei, Head of Research at Arcane, a Norwegian cryptocurrency research firm, when discussing the influx of Russian assets going digital with CNN. “This is where they find the most comfort at the moment.” Under the current market conditions, I’m not surprised to see investors, at least those in Russia, seeking stablecoins.”

“This is about saving their funds,” said Schei, “not investing.”

Celsius, one of the largest CeFi lenders in blockchain finance, has announced a $30M sum of wrapped eth to Maple Finance in their first move of CelsiusX, the company’s newest addition, a DeFi-specific focus of their company. The pool will be held on Maple Finance, a DeFi provider of undercollateralized lending for institutional borrowers. They also offer fixed income opportunities for lenders.

“We are a technology platform for credit experts to run lending businesses and are in constant consultation with regulated and listed firms,” Sidney Powell, the co-founder and CEO of Maple Finance told The Defiant. “Our infrastructure is built to scale and support institutions across CeFi, DeFi, and TradFi.”

The tussle between DeFi and CeFi has been an ongoing schism in the crypto finance space. Believers of DeFi want the autonomy as account holders to choose where their assets are being lent out and at what terms, while CeFi believers think that institutions should have that power.

With Celsius making this investment into Maple, it shows that the two schools of thought can merge into one financial philosophy of a blend of DeFi and CeFi, rather than compete and argue which one is more morally and economically sustainable. 

From Celsius’ perspective, it looks like CelsiusX is a product offering to get more users on their platform. “We are excited to use Maple’s DeFi rails to provide efficient access to capital for blue-chip crypto institutions,” said Alex Mashinsky, the CEO of Celsius to The Defiant. “Celsius will draw on its deep experience in underwriting and look forward to welcoming new borrowers this year and beyond.”’

According to Powell, Maple has originated more than $768M worth of loans since launching in May of last year. He also claims that the company currently has $654M worth of assets in their protocols. 

Mashinsky even told The Defiant names of specific companies that were the first to be approved for funds. Leading algorithmic crypto market maker Wintermute, the digital asset venture capital firm Framework Ventures, and cryptocurrency trading firm Amber have apparently already been approved as some of the inaugural borrowers by Celsius.