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BUSINESSTODAY 21 April 2022

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21.4.2022 6 MARKETS Symbol Volume Value Trades High Low Open Closing Change Code Traded Traded Trades Price Price Price Price EQUITIES BOV 6,198 4,871.09 2 0.790 0.785 0.785 0.790 0.000 HLI 500 127.00 1 0.254 0.254 0.254 0.254 0.006 IHI 17,315 9,843.93 3 0.575 0.545 0.560 0.575 0.030 MPC 190 103.55 1 0.545 0.545 0.545 0.545 0.015 MSC 5,000 2,000.00 1 0.400 0.400 0.400 0.400 -0.050 RS2 1,823 3,062.64 1 1.680 1.680 1.680 1.680 -0.020 SFC 7,520 62,666.00 3 8.350 8.300 8.300 8.350 0.150 GOVERNMENT STOCKS G23A 6,989 7,524.36 1 107.660 107.660 107.660 107.660 -0.050 G32A 3,000 4,038.00 1 134.600 134.600 134.600 134.600 -0.200 CORPORATE BONDS 1923A 10,000 10,025.00 1 100.250 100.250 100.250 100.250 0.000 AX26A 7,700 7,679.00 2 99.750 99.500 99.750 99.500 -0.500 AX32A 10,000 10,049.00 1 100.490 100.490 100.490 100.490 0.240 BV30A 25,000 25,125.00 1 100.500 100.500 100.500 100.500 -0.500 BX27A 2,000 2,050.00 1 102.500 102.500 102.500 102.500 1.900 CC30A 21,000 21,304.00 3 101.450 101.440 101.450 101.450 0.000 EN29A 50,000 49,000.00 1 98.000 98.000 98.000 98.000 -1.000 GH27A 5,000 5,175.00 1 103.500 103.500 103.500 103.500 2.500 GO31A 20,000 20,457.00 4 102.700 102.250 102.250 102.700 0.500 HF27A 5,000 5,049.50 1 100.990 100.990 100.990 100.990 0.490 HF29A 25,900 25,660.50 3 99.500 98.500 99.500 99.500 -0.500 HM24A 900 927.00 1 103.000 103.000 103.000 103.000 0.000 HP25A 15,000 15,193.12 2 101.490 101.000 101.000 101.490 1.440 IH26A 21,000 21,180.00 5 101.000 100.500 101.000 100.500 0.000 IH26B 2,000 1,980.00 1 99.000 99.000 99.000 99.000 0.000 MD26A 10,000 10,134.00 2 101.500 101.100 101.500 101.100 0.080 MI22A 4,500 4,432.50 1 98.500 98.500 98.500 98.500 0.000 MM26A 12,000 12,229.00 2 101.990 101.500 101.500 101.990 -0.010 MO31A 30,500 30,921.50 4 101.400 101.300 101.400 101.300 0.000 SA32A 41,000 42,845.00 3 104.500 104.500 104.500 104.500 0.000 SD27A 10,500 10,606.05 4 101.130 100.500 100.500 101.130 0.880 TI27A 9,000 9,180.00 2 102.000 102.000 102.000 102.000 0.000 Malta Stock Exchange Regulated Main Market Trading Date: 20 April 2022 IMF warns crypto mining could aid countries hit by sanctions THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that countries like Russia and Iran could use cryp- tocurrency to evade sanctions. In a report, the IMF said coun- tries could leverage their surplus energy supplies, which they can- not export, to power mining, a more energy-intensive way of val- idating crypto transactions. Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, western powers resort- ed to wide-ranging sanctions de- signed to pressure the Kremlin into backing off from military ac- tion. e IMF report states that while sanctions evasion through cryp- tocurrency mining is negligible today, governments could expand their mining operations in the fu- ture to create income from trans- action fees. Not long after sanctions took effect, lawmakers identified cryp- tocurrencies as a possible way Russia could bypass international sanctions. And U.S. Senator Eliz- abeth Warren introduced a bill to enforce U.S. sanctions across the global cryptocurrency industry. European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde said last month that evidence pointed to Russians exchanging rubles for cryptocurrencies or stablecoins. "When you see the volumes of rubles into stable, into cryptos, at the moment, it is the highest lev- el that we have seen since maybe 2021," she told a virtual conference. At the time, many industry play- ers called into question claims made by Lagarde and government officials like Warren. Among them was Michael Chobanian, president of the Ukraine Blockchain Associ- ation. "I'm the person who is be- hind all the numbers, I know how this happens, and it's impossible, physically impossible, to transfer large amounts of money from fiat into crypto," he said. Jonathan Levein, Chainalysis co-founder, said that there had been no evidence to suggest that Russia or President Putin were us- ing crypto to evade restrictions. Sanctioned individuals would struggle to hide wealth e U.S. Treasury said sanc- tioned individuals or companies would struggle to hide wealth via cryptocurrencies. "Even at the lev- el of individual elites, laundering billions of dollars through digital wallets would expose themselves to those tracking flows within vir- tual currency markets," a spokes- person told DW. Furthermore, the director of cy- bersecurity for the U.S. National Security Council, Carole House, said, "e scale that the Russian state would need to successfully circumvent all U.S. and partners' financial sanctions would almost certainly render cryptocurrency as an ineffective primary tool for the state." Chainalysis also argued that by almost any metric, the cryptocur- rency markets lack the liquidity to support a massive evasion of Rus- sian sanctions. "Our findings suggest that the markets are not liquid enough to support the movement of the hundreds of billions controlled by sanctioned Russian oligarchs," said the company in a blog post. And Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao summarized the situation succinctly in an interview with the Guardian. "Crypto is too small for Russia. If we look at the crypto adoption today, there is probably about 3% of the global population with some kind of crypto expo- sure (i.e. owning some crypto). Of those, most only have a small percentage of their net worth in crypto. ere is probably only less than 0.3% of the global net worth in crypto today. is percentage applies equally to Russia," he said. 3.8% HLF 2029

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