https://ift.tt/pkWFO8c Minister Urges Crypto Community to Ban Russian Crypto Addresses

• The Russian market is supposedly Binance’s second-largest market behind Turkey.
• Leaving Russia might be terrible for major global exchanges like Binance.

Ukrainian officials have asked for sanctions on Russian cryptocurrency holdings as the West continues to impose sanctions on Russian banks after Russia invades Ukraine. In a Sunday tweet, Ukraine’s Minister of Digital Transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, urged cryptocurrency exchanges throughout the world to ban the addresses of Russian users. He added that exchanges should “sabotage ordinary users” by denying access to addresses linked to Russia and Belarus.

Fedorov then pointed out that several industry-related services, like the DMarket non-fungible token (NFT)platform, have frozen assets from Russia and Belarus. The social media giant Meta’s continued response to Russia’s war on Ukraine was also mentioned by him. In light of the Russian crypto market’s projected value of over $200 billion as of early February, Fedorov’s arguments might be disastrous.

Rise in Crypto Investments

As the ruble depreciates against the dollar and the euro, Russians are reportedly contemplating selling their bank savings and investing in cryptocurrencies. Since Russia invaded Ukraine, a representative for Russia’s largest crypto exchange aggregator, BestChange, has seen a 20% rise in traffic.

The Russian market is supposedly Binance’s second-largest market behind Turkey in website traffic. Leaving Russia might be terrible for major global exchanges like Binance. A spokeswoman for Binance said that the business does not intend to freeze funds held by Russians since doing so would contravene cryptocurrency’s fundamental ideals of financial freedom. They expect that Russian sanctions will finally be implemented. However, like the US Office of Foreign Assets Control, they should focus on a handful of individuals.