Centralized exchanges (CEX) and CEOs of companies like BinanceCoinbase and Kraken have stated that they would only freeze the assets of Russian customers specifically affected by Western sanctions, but not those of ordinary Russian users.
A few days earlier, Mykhailo Fedorov, the Ukrainian minister for digital transformation, had order to “all major cryptocurrency exchanges that block addresses [de los monederos] of the Russians” and “also to sabotage ordinary users [congelando sus activos]Explaining why he wasn’t preemptively banning all Russians (although, Coinbase is not available in Russia), Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, wrote specifically:
“We believe that everyone deserves to have access to basic financial services unless the law says otherwise. Some ordinary Russians are using cryptocurrencies as a lifeline now that their currency has tanked. Many of them are probably opposed. to what their country is doing, and a ban would hurt them too.”
However, Armstrong also said that “if the United States government decides to impose a ban, of course we will follow those laws.” The sentiments of this statement were echoed by Kraken CEO Jesse Powell, who declared:
“Kraken cannot freeze the accounts of our Russian customers without a legal requirement to do so. The Russians should be aware that such a requirement could be imminent.”
The unsanctioned individuals seem to still be feeling the effects of the sanctions. The day before, Binance announced that cardholders from sanctioned Russian banks would not be able to use them on its platform. On Friday, Redditor u/Sammy12xyz raised the issue facing Iranian crypto enthusiasts amid calls for CEX to take action against Russian customers, stating:
“It’s already happened with Iranian accounts. We’ve been locked on Binance for two years and no one has said shit. Aren’t we innocent?”
Despite these sanctions, it appears that there are several, albeit limited, ways to circumvent them. As a KuCoin moderator wrote:
“Users from Iran can use our exchange, but KYC is not supported [Know Your Customer]. If you want to proceed without KYC, you can still perform all functions on our exchange as normal, even if you are not verified. However, there will be a withdrawal limit of 5 BTC per 24 hours for unverified accounts.”
Additionally, CEX bans on Iranian IP addresses can allegedly be circumvented with VPNs. Although an Iranian crypto enthusiast Cointelegraph spoke with claimed that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) are necessary in the first place to buy VPNs in Iran, as these services do not accept fiat payments from Iranians due to sanctions.
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