The US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has sanctioned 13 organizations for using cryptocurrencies when interacting with sanctioned Russian companies.

OFAC noted that many of these crypto companies conducted transactions with sanctioned Russian banks, exchanges, and darknet sites using cryptocurrencies. In particular, B-Crypto, a Moscow-based fintech company that cooperates with Rosbank to facilitate international payments for Russian exporters, was included in the Ministry of Finance’s “black list.” There is also the Atomize platform, a registered operator of digital financial assets (DFAs), which specializes in tokenization of precious metals. The company is a partner of Rosbank and Sovcombank, which are also included in the OFAC list.

The Ministry of Finance also mentioned the Bitpapa P2P platform. According to the department, the platform conducted cryptocurrency transactions worth millions of dollars with the Russian darknet platform Hydra and the Garantex cryptocurrency exchange. In October, Garantex denied an article by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), which alleged that the company was involved in financing Palestinian militants. Crypto Explorer, also known as AWEX, is also on OFAC's list. It is the operator of a virtual currency exchanger in Russia and the UAE, offering conversion of digital assets, rubles and dirhams. AWEX transfers funds to credit cards of Sber and Alfa-Bank, the Ministry of Finance noted.

“Russia is increasingly turning to alternative payment mechanisms to circumvent US sanctions. Therefore, we will continue to expose companies that help sanctioned Russian financial institutions interact with the international financial system,” said Brian Nelson, Under Secretary of the Treasury for Counterterrorism and Financial Intelligence.

Let us recall that in 2021 OFAC fined the BitPay service $500,000 for conducting transactions between US citizens and persons located in regions under US sanctions (Crimea, Cuba, North Korea, Sudan, Iran and Syria).