EU Acts To Prevent Russia’s Avoiding Sanctions Through Crypto

by in Cryptocurrency News

European Union Russia crypto

The European Union is considering new measures to make sure that Russia can't use digital assets to circumvent economic sanctions.

Related: While EU Postpones Vote on PoW Tokens, ECB Urges to Act

During a video call held on March 2, EU finance ministers and other officials discussed the risks that digital assets could allow Russia to bypass restrictions. The president of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde highlighted the necessity to act. According to Financial Times, The Finance Minister of France, Bruno Le Maire said after the meeting that the EU considers steps to increase the effectiveness of the bans and avoid any bypass of the measures, which includes crypto as well.

Next, the executive branch of the EU, the European Commission will move forward to discuss proposals to deal with the issue. Previously, Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov asked major crypto exchanges to ban all Russian users. Kraken CEO Jesse Powell and Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao reacted to Fedorov's tweet, saying that broad restrictions would hurt ordinary people. Changpeng Zhao (CZ) said in an interview that it would be unethical for the company to block all Russian users, and mentioned that many people in the country are against the current war.