The European Sanctions and Cryptocurrency
💭 Sanctions work over time. They do work, but it takes years for them to have an effect.
Toomas Hendrik Ilves
📌 Today, we live in another reality. After the 24 of February, the world has opened a new page of history, and we started to realize how we’re mistaken about the public persons we supported on social networks, about the simple things we thought we truly and fully understood, and finally, the things we believed and in my case, invested for. To speak about the cryptocurrency, I always adored the new technologies and tried to use it in my daily life to show society how we can easily help to create and develop something new without huge amounts of money. It sounds funny, but I really loved to feel like Elon Musk who does something great for humanity. I supported it then, and I do it in the present time, the different crypto payments and crypto cards, tried to find the ways to earn money in crypto without any risks( and I found it with passive incomes), I looked for the new crypto assets that can show the huge profits in the nearest future ( like it was with DOGE and WBT). So, I did everything I could to do my part in the large world of Blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies. The war began, and all masks were removed. Today you can read all the information about the importance of European sanctions, and the crypto projects that denied or continued to work with the Russian users.
The new European sanctions
The European Union has toughened restrictions on crypto payments from Russian accounts, wallets or other holding services to European ones. In the eighth sanctions package against Russia since its invasion of Ukraine in February, the bloc removed the cap of €10,000 which was established in April to a prohibition “irrespective of the amount of the wallet.”
◾️ In addition to banning crypto services, other measures in the most recent package include “EU import bans worth €7 billion to curb Russia’s revenues, as well as export restrictions, which will further deprive the Kremlin’s military and industrial complex of key components and technologies and Russia’s economy of European services and expertise.”
🔴 On top of that, the new package includes IT consultancy, legal advisory, architecture, and engineering services, which are no longer to be provided to the Russian government or legal entities established in Russia.
◾️ The sanctions also include individuals and entities “involved in Russia’s occupation, illegal annexation, and sham “referenda” in the occupied territories/oblasts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions,” as well as “high-ranking and military officials [and] companies supporting the Russian armed forces.”
Crypto exchanges that blocked Russian users
1️⃣ Localbitcoins
🔵 Localbitcoins, the peer-to-peer exchange platform, has recently told Russian citizens it can no longer offer them its services, Forklog reported. The only exception that can be made is for persons that also hold a passport issued by a country from the European Economic Area (EU member states plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway) and Switzerland, those who have a permanent residence permit in these jurisdictions.
2️⃣ Crypto.com
🔵 Crypto.com has already blocked users affected by the EU regulations from accessing the app. The emails, dated Oct. 14 and seen by The Block, do not provide any information regarding withdrawals — so it is assumed that withdrawing funds from Crypto.com is not an option. The crypto exchange company also said the restrictions are a result of the new regulations.
3️⃣ Blockchain.com
🔵 Blockchain.com notified its Russia-based users of an imminent restriction on their accounts via an email, as first reported by The Block. According to the email, the Luxembourg-headquartered exchange has suspended its custodial and rewards offerings to its Russian customers. Blockchain.com gave all potentially affected customers till October 27 to pull out their funds in the respective areas before an eventual imposition of the restriction. Affected customers have already been restricted from accruing any more rewards as of press time.
According to Blockchain.com, the decision is in compliance with the recently-introduced batch of sanctions from the European Union against Russian nationals concerning digital asset wallets.
4️⃣ WhiteBIT
🔵 The largest European crypto exchange, WhiteBIT, continues to systematically help Ukrainians affected by military operations. Thus, with the support of WhiteBIT, the call center of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine started work. In April the WhiteBIT crypto exchange and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine signed a memorandum of understanding and cooperation. “We understand how important it is to provide comprehensive informational support to citizens who were forced to leave Ukraine or are about to do so.
The time of extreme trials united business, the state, and citizens with a common goal, and our company wants to provide all possible assistance to both Ukrainians and the Ukrainian state. For this, WhiteBIT has the necessary resources and significant technological potential,” Volodymyr Nosov, CEO of the WhiteBIT crypto exchange, emphasized. WhiteBIT was one of the first crypto exchanges that directly supported the European sanctions and imposed the restrictions on the Russian users.
5️⃣ BitMex
🔵 Major cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX is working to increase compliance with the European sanctions against Russia by preparing to enforce major restrictions for its Russian users. BitMEX is changing its restricted jurisdictions policy to be compliant with various restrictive measures of the European Union. The new restrictions do not apply to Russian citizens or residents accessing BitMEX services from the EU who are also residents in the EU or Switzerland. Dual citizens of the EU or Switzerland who reside outside Russia will also not be affected, the email notes.
💭 “If you are a resident in the EU or Switzerland or a dual citizen of the EU or Switzerland and reside outside Russia, you may submit additional information to apply for an exemption and continue to access our Services from the EU,” the statement said.
The measure targets all types of traders, including persons trading on behalf of any legal persons, while they access BitMEX from the EU, as well as legal persons established in Russia, whose traders access the services from the EU.
6️⃣ Kraken
🔵 Kraken is the latest cryptocurrency exchange to restrict accounts of Russian users on its platform in compliance with sanctions from the European Union. On Oct. 19, Kraken sent out email statements to its Russian clients to announce that the exchange is halting services to its Russian customers.
💭 “Due to the new European legislation, we have to take measures to restrict your Kraken account,” the company said. According to an email statement seen by Cointelegraph, Russian users would be able to withdraw their funds by request.
“We will update our support center if there are any changes,” Kraken noted, adding: “We apologize for the inconvenience caused.” Kraken didn’t specify whether there’s a time limit to withdraw the funds from the exchange for Russian citizens. A spokesperson for Kraken told Cointelegraph that the firm complies with the “legal and regulatory requirements in all jurisdictions” of its operations. “Since the EU’s announcement, we have been working to make the changes needed to comply with the latest package of sanctions against Russia,” the representative noted.
Crypto exchanges that don’t block Russian users
🔴 KuCoin
On discussing KuCoin’s upgraded security, Lyu said, “The saying “what does not kill you makes you stronger” resonates with us. I believe that KuCoin today is stronger than we have ever been.”
⁉️ True to the core values mentioned above, KuCoin will not ban Russian users unless sanctions explicitly target individuals or entities. Johnny Lyu stated his reasons for not banning Russian users.
💭 He said, “As a neutral platform, we will not freeze the accounts of any users from any country without a legal requirement. And at this difficult time, actions that increase the tension to impact the rights of innocent people should not be encouraged.” — CNBC website.
🔴 Huobi
⁉️ According to the DigitNews: “Huobi continues to support the stable trading of Russian users, our top priority is the security of user assets. If any restrictions are introduced, we will promptly inform users and the press,” Huobi said.
Huobi Group is an international digital asset exchange with access to more than 100 countries and regions around the world. The platform works in the field of blockchain technologies, trading in digital assets and wallets, research in the field of the digital economy.
Informed by the Cointelegraph’s article: ⬇️
Another popular exchange that has yet to initiate any sort of ban is Antigua and Barbuda-based FTX. The same has been the case for the popular Russian cryptocurrency platform Garantex, which still provides traders in the region with a wide range of advanced services such as futures and derivatives.
🟥 Other popular platforms operating in the region include Seychelles-registered Huobi Global, OKX, KuCoin and Mexc Global. In fact, Singapore-registered Bybit told a crypto outlet that it will continue to stand by its ethos of freedom, transparency and decentralization and not impose any sanctions against Russian clients, many of whom may not even agree with the war or the stance taken by their leaders.
Lastly, it should be noted that United Kingdom-based crypto exchange Exmo, which is extremely popular across Eastern Europe, sold its Russian business to a local vendor earlier this year. The platform continues to remain operational in Russia and its neighboring nations of Belarus and Kazakhstan via its Exmo.me domain name.
The doubts of Binance
⁉️ In the weeks following new sanctions from the European Union, Binance has kept its doors open for nonsanctioned Russian nationals — but that does not mean that the firm isn’t complying with the sanctions, according to Binance’s newly appointed sanctions executive.
Western sanctions against Russia have been a major challenge for Binance from day one, and the firm has been working hard to comply, Binance’s global head of sanctions, Chagri Poyraz, told Cointelegraph in an interview. Since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Binance has comprehensively blocked several non-government-controlled territories of Ukraine, including annexed regions like Donetsk and Luhansk, Poyraz said.
💭 “There is still an active war going on in the region,” he noted, adding that Binance continues to actively monitor the situation. Binance has more than 500 compliance executives globally, and about half of them are directly involved in sanctions control, including Anti-Money Laundering, name screening and other procedures.
According to the Coindesk’s information:
The head of the largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume said new and stronger EU sanctions have created a “tricky situation” for dealing with Russian users.
🔻 “We are not against any people,” said Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, holding a press conference during the Web Summit here on Wednesday. “We are against dictatorships of war. We’re not against the population. But as a business, we’re licensed in many different places. We have to follow the rules,” he added.
🔻 “It’s a tricky situation,” he said. While Binance’s licensed entities in Europe — France, Italy, Spain, Lithuania, and Sweden among them — definitely wouldn’t be able to serve Russian citizens because of sanctions since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he said the question is less straightforward in jurisdictions outside the EU.
“We are communicating with the regulators on whether it’s OK for us to service Russian users,” he added. “How it plays out internationally, we have to see. We’re waiting for expert recommendations. It’s a tough situation.”
⁉️ Zhao has previously called Russia a “key market” for Binance, and the exchange has been fairly popular in that country.
🖇 So, while Binance continues to support services for Russians, a number of crypto exchanges and wallets exited Russia shortly after the EU imposed the eighth, most recent sanctions package. While the numerous crypto projects hadn’t closed their doors to russian users yet, the others help the Ukrainian economy and support the Ukraine not only by a word, but also by deed.
