Cryptocurrency Exchanges Let Russian Locals Use Their Platforms, Provide Support In Circumvention

In the 8th wave of sanctions that were implemented against Russia by the west, it was ordered that the crypto firms must avoid offering services to Russia.

It meant that the Russian locals must not be allowed by the exchanges to operate and process transactions.

The sanctions made it clear that the cryptocurrency exchanges must not interact with local banks. They barred them from opening accounts in local banks in Russia.

However, the latest reports are claiming that the locals in Russia have not been barred from interacting with cryptocurrency exchanges.

This means that despite the sanctions, the cryptocurrency exchanges are continuing to provide their services to the Russian locals.

Allegations Made by Inca Digital

An analytical firm collecting data through the blockchain networks has collected the data from the Russian crypto market before making the allegations.

The firm, Inca Digital, has made a claim that despite the sanctions, the cryptocurrency exchanges are breaching the orders, offering services to the Russian locals.

As per the data, it is the largest cryptocurrency exchange that is involved in doing that. They have been offering services to the Russian locals while opening up accounts in the local Russian banks.

These were the same sanctions imposed on the crypto exchanges on the very first day when Russia invaded Ukraine.

However, the west put a lot of stress and pressure on cryptocurrency exchanges from around the world to stop interacting with the Russian locals.

Report Shared by Inca Digital

As reported by Inca Digital, despite the sanctions, Russian traders and investors have not lost the ability to use debit cards.

The debit cards in question are the ones that were issued by Russian banks through cryptocurrency exchanges. This means that the cryptocurrency exchanges are still letting the Russian banks issue cards and funds to their users.

To be clearer, the members and allies that issued sanctions against Russia were the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States.

Even the largest bank, the Sberbank, the bank owned by the Russian State has continued providing services to the locals in the country.

The bank has continued offering PTP services to the locals, thanks to the major cryptocurrency exchanges such as KuCoin and Huobi.

Statement by Adam Zarazinski

The chief executive officer of Inca has made a claim pertaining to the respective exchanges. He has claimed that despite the implementation of strict sanctions and orders, the crypto exchanges have continued interacting with Russia.

These exchanges have continued offering services to the local banks in Russia as well as the Sberbank. The sanctions strongly opposed the service offering of the exchanges to the Russian banks and locals.

They ordered the exchanges to blacklist the banks in Russia so they cannot let the locals benefit from their platforms.

However, as these two and many other exchanges have continued offering services to the Russian banks, they are in breach of the sanctions imposed by Europe and the US.

The exchanges still have not commented on the situation and it is expected that they may soon get back on the allegations. They will have to revert on the matter otherwise, they may end up facing charges by the regulators.

Binance is Offering Services to Russians

Inca has reportedly gone through the data of 163 cryptocurrency trading platforms to come up with their findings.

They have shared information pertaining to the OTC and P2P services offered by both the decentralized and centralized exchanges.

The firm has claimed that half of the total studied platforms are involved in offering services to the nation of Russia.

Even the likes of Binance and Bybit are letting users based in Russia convert cryptocurrencies to Rubles. These exchanges are breaching the sanctions while offering services to the people in Russia.

In light of the recent developments, the exchanges may come under great fire by the mentioned countries.