Treasury Department may ban crypto exchange for Russian users, says US senator
A US senator confirmed that a new bill may give authority to impose restrictions on crypto Exchanges, to keep services away from Russian users.
Today is the 24th day of the Russia vs Ukraine war and in this war situation, Russia is facing huge numbers of restrictions from other countries. In these restrictions, financial and trade sanctions on Russia are significantly degrading the financial economy of Russia. However, no attempt has been seen so far from Russia to use any crypto-like system to bypass such sanctions but experts believe Russia may step into crypto to bypass the sanctions at some significant levels. All these possibilities and speculation are giving birth to new development work on the rules and regulations, to keep financial sanctions strongly against Russia.
Elizabeth Warren, a US senator, is introducing a bill that is related to Russia & crypto significantly. This bill may release a power in hands of the US Treasury Department to impose restrictions on the crypto companies ( services and crypto exchange or related platform) to stop providing services for the Russian crypto accounts.
Significantly this bill will target those actors, which are involved in the financial activities from the US to Russia with the use of crypto, violating the provisions of financial sanctions on Russia.
According to a one-pager from Warren’s office.
Under this bill, if any person is found to be involved or linked with the activities against Financial Sanctions on Russia then in that situation US President Joe Biden’s administration may put additional sanctions on those associated crypto accounts.
US senator Warren confirmed all these things formally through the press release regarding this bill.
She said:
“(Russian President Vladimir Putin) and his cronies can move the store, and hide their wealth using cryptocurrencies, potentially allowing them to evade the historic economic sanctions the US and its partners across the world have levied in response to Russia’s war against Ukraine.”
Warren also added that she is happy to bring this act against Russia to strengthen financial sanctions.
“I’m glad to introduce the Digital Asset Sanctions Compliance Enhancement Act with my colleagues to strengthen our sanctions program and close off any avenues for Russian evasion.”
Now it will be interesting to see what will be the reaction of US-based crypto exchanges on Russian crypto accounts and users. However, it will be a matter of time to see the actual impact of this bill because this bill doesn’t aim to ban all Russian users or crypto accounts, so it will probably bring restrictions on particular numbers of users.
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