Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has blocked 25,000 addresses of users registered in Russia after the statement of the CEO of the platform about the support of sanctions against the Russian Federation.
U.S. trading platform Coinbase announced in a blog post that it will stop servicing more than 25,000 addresses of Russian users suspected of “illegal activity” effective March 7. The marketplace confirmed that it intends to continue to adhere to the sanctions compliance policy.
“More than 25,000 addresses associated with Russian individuals or legal entities are, in our opinion, suspected of illegal activity. We have identified many of these addresses through our own investigations,” the statement said.
The marketplace explained that during registration, it checks account applications against lists of individuals or entities that have been sanctioned, including lists maintained by the US, UK, EU, UN, Singapore, Canada, and Japan.
The restrictions for Russian users were introduced after Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said there was no high risk that Russian oligarchs would use cryptocurrencies to circumvent sanctions.
Attempting to conduct an international transaction in cryptocurrency is tracked to a greater extent than the use of US dollar cash, art, gold, or other assets, he said. At the same time, Armstrong stressed that Coinbase will not preventively prohibit Russians from using the exchange.
At the end of February, the exchanges Coinbase, KUNA, BTC-Alpha and CEX IO temporarily suspended services for users from Russia. Last week, the CEO of the largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance, Changpeng Zhao, announced that only one Russian was blocked from the site’s clients.
The CEO of the Kraken exchange compared the requirement to block clients from Russia with the Canadian authorities’ ban on serving the Convoy of Freedom cryptocurrency wallets and refused to support the sanctions.
Source: Bits
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