It has been a few days since Russia made the decision to invade Ukraine and declare war. Ever since then, the United States has been sending economic sanctions to Russia. According to the best website crypto news, if these western sanctions keep on piling up, there might be some consequences for sure. The crypto market will also be affected due to these sanctions. With the increase of these sanctions, CEXs or Centralized Exchanges might actually be forced to make sure that all Russian users are banned from using the services that they are providing. This is not the first time something like that has happened though. Previously, the CEXs banned all the users from Iran from using the services for sure.
The CEXs as well as the CEOs from different companies such as Kraken, Binance, and Coinbase have actually made the statements regarding the banning of the users. According to the CEOs, the companies will ban the assets and collections of those Russian clients that are being targeted by the Wester Sanctions in the first place. However, all the other innocent citizens of Russia who have an asset account in these companies will be left out of the list.
It was just a few days ago when Mykhailo Fedorov Ukraine’s minister of digital transformation, made a request to the major organizations.
He called for “all major crypto exchanges to block [wallet] addresses of Russians” and “also to sabotage ordinary users [by freezing their assets].” As an explanation on why he was not preemptively banning all Russians (though, Coinbase is not available in Russia), Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, specifically wrote: “We believe everyone deserves access to basic financial services unless the law says otherwise. Some ordinary Russians are using crypto as a lifeline now that their currency has collapsed. Many of them likely oppose what their country is doing, and a ban would hurt them, too.”
It has also been mentioned by Armstrong that “if the U.S. government decides to impose a ban, we will, of course, follow those laws.” The sentiments of this statement were also properly echoed by the CEO of Kraken Jesse Powell, who said: “Kraken cannot freeze the accounts of our Russian clients without a legal requirement to do so. Russians should be aware that such a requirement could be imminent.”
Companies Announce Ban on Sanctioned Banks And Users in Russia
The individuals that are not sanctioned seem to actually be feeling the effects of the western sanctions as well. Binance made an announcement before that the cardholders of different Russian banks that are sanctioned will not be able to utilize the cards on the platform of Binance. On Friday, Redditor u/Sammy12xyz raised the issue Iranian crypto enthusiasts face amid calls for CEXs to crack down on Russian customers, claiming: “It’s already happened to Iranian accounts. We’ve been blocked out of Binance for two years, and no one’s said shit. Are we not innocent?”
Despite such sanctions, it appears there are several, albeit limited, ways to circumvent them. As one KuCoin moderator wrote: “Users from Iran can use our exchange, but KYC [Know Your Customer] is not supported. If you wish to proceed without doing KYC, you may still perform all functions on our exchange as normal, even if you are not verified. However, there will be a withdrawal limit of 5 BTC per 24 hours for unverified accounts.”
In addition, CEX bans on Iranian IP addresses can be allegedly bypassed with VPNs. According to best website crypto news, one Iranian crypto enthusiast Cointelegraph spoke to claimed that cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) are needed in the first place to purchase VPNs in Iran, as such services do not accept fiat payments from Iranians due to sanctions.
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