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The CEO of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, has said that Russia cannot use cryptocurrencies to avoid Western sanctions. Zhao and other executives in the crypto space have argued that Russian oligarchs and institutions could not hide assets using crypto.
Zhao says Russia cannot use crypto to avoid sanctions
Zhao was speaking during an interview with CNN’s Richard Quest, where he said cryptocurrency transactions were easily traceable, making them less ideal to use by those who want to hide their wealth.
The executive also added that governments are capable of tracing cryptocurrency transactions. Moreover, he noted BINANCE was abiding by these sanctions and that it was blocking those included in the sanctions and even the accounts of those related to people included in the sanctions.
Zhao’s remarks reflect the statements made by the majority of cryptocurrency exchanges. These platforms have said that they abided by the sanctions list and halted transactions with sanctioned individuals and institutions.
Binance is against the war
Zhao has also stated that Binance was against the ongoing war in Ukraine. However, he said that the company was not against the people, given that the war had affected both Russians and Ukrainians.
Zhao also reiterated that Binance would not freeze the assets of normal Russian users, saying that would be illegal. However, he noted that it was up to the government to state whether all assets belonging to Russian users should be frozen or not.
Binance was among the crypto firms that channelled humanitarian aid to help with the Ukraine refugee crisis. The exchange pledged $10 million in funding to help Ukrainian refugees, with Zhao saying that most of this amount had been distributed.
Binance is not the only exchange that has refused to block all Russian users. The CEOs of Kraken and COINBASE have also said that it would be unfair to impose a unilateral ban on all Russian users unless there was a legal requirement to do so. However, the exchanges have banned sanctioned Russian individuals and institutions from transacting on their platforms.
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