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Major Crypto Exchanges Are Against Blanket Bans on Russian Users: Here’s Why

Crypto exchanges are a big part of U.S. efforts to carry through with sanctions on Russia, but many of them are refusing to block all Russian addresses.

Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov even asked major crypto exchanges to go beyond the sanctions and block the addresses of all Russian users. Binance, Coinbase, and Kraken have all said that doing so goes against their core beliefs. However, many of them have agreed to block the addresses of those on the sanctions list.

This comes after Russia was barred from accessing foreign reserves. Since they cannot get their assets right now, crypto has been seen as a possible way to evade all of the sanctions placed on them.

Major Crypto Exchanges Warn That Stricter Requirements Could Be Coming Soon

So far, the White House’s National Security Council and Treasury Department have asked that major crypto exchanges help cut off access to sanctioned people. Most of them have said they will comply with this request. They’ve blocked addresses that have been identified by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

However, these major exchanges say that banning all Russia-based addresses would unfairly hurt innocent people within the country. There’s one exception to this stance. A Ukrainian NFT and virtual goods startup called DMarket is blocking all new users from Russia and Belarus.

While Binance, Coinbase, and Kraken refuse to block all Russians from trading right now, that could change in the future. If the U.S. decides to impose broader sanctions across Russia, these major crypto exchanges are saying that they will comply. “Russians should be aware that such a requirement could be imminent,” says Kraken CEO Jesse Powell.

Russia Is A Large Part Of the Crypto Market

It’s worth noting that Russia is a huge part of the crypto market. However, many think that these sanctions against crypto are not needed. It’s possible that Russia could be trying to evade sanctions this way. However, markets would not be able to keep up with the amount of money the country would need to convert. According to Axios, the crypto markets simply aren’t built to handle a big enough transaction to fund a war.

Not only that, but we would know for sure if Russia was trying to do that. It would be extremely easy to see that amount of volume.

That being said, Bitcoin is currently up in price. On March 1, the cryptocurrency saw a jump of 16.9%, to $44,511.20. Ether also saw a big jump yesterday. The cryptocurrency jumped 15.2% to $3,022.68.

Originally, crypto saw a huge decline last week after Russia began its invasion of Ukraine. People were selling off their assets. Now, experts think crypto is going back up from this war. Investors could be buying off all of last week’s sold assets. And, of course, Russians and Ukrainians could be trying to get their money out of the country. If further sanctions are imposed that ban all Russian addresses, we may see another dip.