As more banks and payment systems cut off service to ordinary Russians in response to the conflict, digital asset firms are being forced to navigate the same reputational minefields as traditional financial institutions.
Pressure is mounting on the cryptocurrency industry to block access to Russians as economic sanctions push the ruble to the edge of collapse.
The wide-ranging sanctions and a growing humanitarian crisis in Ukraine have sent technology firms, internet providers and credit card companies racing for the exits. But top crypto platforms have held firm on continuing to offer Russian users a potential digital haven.
While the exchanges insist that they’re working to block sanctioned oligarchs and institutions from their platforms, the Ukrainian government and U.S. Democrats led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) are blasting crypto asset service providers for continuing to operate in Russia at all even as others have fled.
“MasterCard has done it. Visa has done it. Amex has done it,” Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), a crypto critic and senior member of the House Financial Services Committee, said in an interview. “In the U.S., these crypto exchanges aren’t doing it. Why have they chosen to be less moral than Visa and MasterCard?”
Warren said on Tuesday that she is writing a bill that would block the exchanges from facilitating crypto transactions with Russian addresses. The move comes as President Joe Biden unveiled a sweeping executive order aimed at clarifying digital asset regulations that includes provisions to solidify anti-money laundering and national security concerns.
Russia was already a prime target for crypto skeptics because of its emergence as a major source of ransomware attacks and the fact that it is home to a number of high-risk digital asset exchanges and service providers that are known to facilitate illegal activity. So far, U.S. Treasury officials say there’s been little evidence of sanctioned Russian individuals or institutions using those services on a meaningful scale to avoid sanctions.
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Wide-ranging sanctions and a humanitarian crisis in Ukraine sent technology firms, internet providers and credit card companies racing for the exits. But top crypto platforms have held firm on continuing to offer Russian users a potential digital haven.https://t.co/zl2fdz6Nu6
— POLITICO (@politico) March 10, 2022
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