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In response to the ongoing war in Ukraine, the European Union (EU) is hitting Russian crypto traders with new restrictions.
According to the Official Journal of the EU, the union has expanded on the sanctions they have placed on Russia, including limits on deposits to cryptocurrency wallets.
“In view of the gravity of the situation, and in response to Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine, it is appropriate to introduce further restrictive measures.
In particular, it is appropriate to extend the prohibition on deposits to crypto wallets, as well as to extend the prohibitions on the export of euro-denominated banknotes and on the sale of euro-denominated transferable securities to all official currencies of the Member States.”
The new legislation would prohibit firms from providing Russian nationals or Russian-established entities with crypto wallet services if the contents of the wallet exceed €10,000 or about $10,876.
In the US, officials have issued warnings to crypto exchanges that fail to comply with Russian sanctions. Last month, Deputy U.S. Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo that American authorities were on the lookout for any entity that attempts to aid Russia in avoiding the sanctions.
“We’ve been paying a lot of attention to sanction evasion…Any company, country, individual who helps Russia evade our sanctions will be subject to our laws and be held accountable, including cryptocurrency companies.
We have not seen to date that Russia has been able to evade our sanctions in a meaningful way, but we know that they are attempting to do so and we know they are going to try and use every means possible, both cryptocurrencies but also shell companies and also any other means that they can find.”
