Ukraine Vice PM Urges Crypto Exchanges to Freeze Russian Accounts
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Ukraine Wants Crypto Crackdown on Russians
On Feb. 27, Mykhailo Fedorov tweeted asking crypto exchanges to ban Russian and Belarusian accounts including not only of politicians but also of ordinary users.
The proposal comes after a series of sanctions imposed by Western allies on Russia, including the exclusion of the SWIFT payment system, the international payments messaging system, in addition to freezing the overseas assets of Russia’s central bank.
However, Jesse Powell, the CEO of Kraken, one of the world’s largest exchanges, has said that it cannot freeze the account 'without a legal requirement to do so.' However, he did hint that this could change in the future by saying that 'Russians should be aware that such a requirement could be imminent.'
Ukrainian NFT Platform Cuts Off Russian Users
In a later tweet, Fedorov praised a move by NFT and Metaverse platform DMarket to freeze accounts belonging to customers in Russia and Belarus.
“Funds from these accounts could be donated to the war effort,” he added.
DMarket had confirmed, a few hours earlier, that registration on the platform is prohibited for users from Russia and Belarus. In addition, accounts of previously registered users from these countries are frozen.