The war between Russia and Ukraine continues to affect the global economy. Thus, being already subject to numerous sanctions from the European Union and the United States, Russia is again sanctioned. From now on, no Russian national will be able to take advantage of the services of the blockchain.com cryptocurrency exchange.
Russians will no longer have access to Blockchain.com
In the virtual currency market, Blockchain.com is among the major players. Indeed, this crypto exchange provides several services related to electronic currencies to a large number of countries, including Russia.
However, a few days ago, Blockchain.com announced that it would suspend its activities in Russia.
In other words, Russian investors who are present on its platform will no longer be able to access it. They will simply be blocked. This, because of the sanctions imposed by the European Union.
Sanctions that will be applied in the coming weeks. Blockchain.com also took the opportunity to invite Russian investors to withdraw all their virtual currency holdings from its platform. The latter have until October 27, 2022 to empty their accounts.
Beyond this date, all accounts belonging to Russians will be blocked and funds will be blocked indefinitely.
Blockchain.com has also notified that it is currently prohibited from providing Russian nationals with financial services in connection with digital currencies. The ban is part of the EU’s eighth round of sanctions against Russia over the war in Ukraine.
These new sanctions come to reinforce those which had been enjoined against the Russian investors. Indeed, before this new sanctions package, Russian citizens who had wallets on Blockchain.com could still carry out financial operations, but within a certain limit.
For example, they could not carry out transactions for an amount greater than or equal to 10,000 euros. From now on, Russian accounts will be purely and simply blocked.
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Sanctions with heavy consequences
Days pass and sanctions continue to weigh against Russia because of the war it is waging against Ukraine.
Long before this new sanctions package, Russian investors who held accounts on the Blockchain.com platform could trade, but with some restrictions.
Now that is no longer the case. In the next few days, Russians will be banned from Blockchain.com.
The other side of the coin is that the Russians will not be the only ones to feel the brunt of these new sanctions. Indeed, investors from other member countries of the European Union will also feel it.
And for good reason, with the arrival of these new restrictions, there can no longer be exchanges of digital assets between Russians and investors from EU countries via Blockchain.com.
The direct consequence is lower trading, the mass sale or transfer of digital assets, and a likely further decline in crypto market prices.
However, it should be remembered that Blockchain.com is not the only crypto trading platform which stops its activities in Russia and/or with the Russians.
Indeed, long before Blockchain.com, other cryptocurrency exchanges were ordered to stop providing financial services to Russian nationals.
On the list of platforms that can no longer operate in Russia, there are in particular Crypto.com, LocalBitcoins or Dapper Labs.
Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange, is struggling to comply with EU sanctions against Russia without cutting ties entirely.
Right after their cessation of activity, these various crypto exchanges saw their turnover drop considerably according to the information shared on crypto news. For example, LocalBitcoins fell to 8% for enforcing these new sanctions which force it to cease its activities in Russia.
True, so far Russian users who are holders of non-custodial digital wallets on the platform can still access them.
However, it should be remembered that Blockchain.com has not specified whether these types of users of its platform will also be affected by this new measure.