With the tightening of Western and US economic sanctions against Russia, concerns have arisen about how this will affect the cryptocurrency market.
The country is largely cut off from the international payment system SWIFT, and companies in the US and other Western countries are banned from doing business or doing business with Russian banks and the state wealth fund.
Cryptocurrency exchange leaders weighed the penalties and their possible consequences. Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, took to Twitter to express his opinion on the matter. He mentioned that most banks follow the sanctions rules and that crypto exchanges like Binance do too.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse also criticized allegations that Russia could use cryptocurrencies to circumvent economic sanctions. On Twitter, the CEO of Ripple described the procedure for creating a cryptocurrency exchange, noting that the world’s crypto exchanges rely on a number of banking partners who risk losing their licenses if a prohibited country or individual violates all security measures necessary to carry out transactions on these. platforms. .
Garlinghouse said crypto exchanges have taken strict measures, such as requiring customers to comply with know-your-customer and anti-money-laundering standards, to avoid such undesirable scenarios.
Garlinghouse’s comments mirrored those of Ripple chief Ashish Birla, who argued that as government and software censorship increased, Russia would not be able to use them to circumvent these economic restrictions.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong also voiced this view and believes that cryptocurrency is not a way to avoid sanctions. According to him, every company in the United States must comply with the law; It does not matter whether they are involved in “dollars, crypto gold, real estate” or any other form of non-financial asset. Armstrong said the sanctions rules apply equally to all companies and individuals.
However, the Coinbase chief stressed that Coinbase is not “proactively” preventing all Russian users from using it, because everyone deserves access to core financial services, “unless otherwise required by law.” However, Russia is not included in the regions supported by Coinbase.
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A Coinbase spokesperson told Cointelegraph that the company is committed to complying with all sanctions imposed, including “banning accounts and transactions that may involve sanctioned individuals or entities.”
Oslo Bors indicated that it would not “out of court” impose a complete ban on all unauthorized Coinbase transactions. The exchange is taking various measures to stay in line with the latest sanctions, according to a Coinbase spokesperson.
