Nine months into the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, sanctions against the latter have continued to grow at an aggressive pace. This time around, legislators for the European Union announced that they are introducing a complete ban on all cross-border crypto payments between Russia and its citizens.
To elaborate, a prohibition of all “crypto-asset wallets, accounts, or custody services, irrespective of the amount of the wallet” has now been initiated by the EU in response to Russia’s continued annexation of Ukrainian land, repeated mobilization of troops within the country and threats of nuclear escalation.
It is worth noting that previous sanctions had limited cryptocurrency payments between Russian to EU wallets to around approximately $9,700, or 10,000 euros. The new ban seeks to deprive the Kremlin’s military power while curtailing critical components of its industrial complex.
Russian crypto users under fire from all corners
In light of the EU’s aforementioned sanctions, a whole host of cryptocurrency exchanges popular in the region, including LocalBitcoins, Crypto.com and Blockchain.com, issued emails to their customers telling them to withdraw their funds as soon as possible since they would be unable to make use of their services henceforth.
It is worth considering that as of September 2022, LocalBitcoins accounted for a whopping 8% of Russia’s crypto trade volume, the exchange’s largest client base by far. Moreover, before the ban, Russian users were responsible for facilitating just under 20% of all total BTC trading volumes on the exchange.
One of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, Binance, is also working toward implementing the new restrictions. However, a representative for the firm told Cointelegraph that these changes may take some time to go live, with there being no set date for the same. Similarly, Bitfinex, an exchange that had previously spoken out against the growing sanctions being levied against Russian nationals, recently changed its tune, claiming that it may have to amend its policies if “directed by the regulatory authorities” by which they are governed.
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Lastly, earlier this month, popular blockchain developer Dapper Labs suspended Russian citizens from accessing its wide array of digital asset services. As a result, users from that side of the world will no longer be able to access the firms’ popular nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace…
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