Coinbase Bans Thousands of Russia-Related Crypto Wallets

US-based cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase announced it blocked more than 25,000 Russia-linked wallet addresses in the wake of the latter’s invasion of Ukraine.

After Russia started invading Ukraine last month, February, western countries including the US, Canada, the UK as well as those in the EU have sanctioned leading Russian business people. The list of sanctions also includes some Russian banks.

Coinbase’s decision on Russia

“Today, Coinbase blocks over 25,000 addresses related to Russian individuals or entities we believe to be engaging in illicit activity, many of which we have identified through our own proactive investigations,” said Paul Grewal, Chief Legal Officer, in Coinbase’s blog. “Once we identified these addresses, we shared them with the government to further support sanctions enforcement”.

White House is concerned that Russia could avoid sanctions using cryptocurrencies. US President Joe Biden, in this regard, warned crypto exchanges to be prudent so that individuals and institutions related to Russia cannot mitigate sanctions imposed by Washington, according to Bloomberg.

“Sanctions play a vital role in promoting national security and deterring unlawful aggression, and Coinbase fully supports these efforts by government authorities,” said Grewal. “Sanctions are serious interventions, and governments are best placed to decide when, where, and how to apply them”.

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‘We are not banning all Russians’

As the global financial sanctions front against Russia expands to end the invasion of Ukraine, the world’s biggest crypto exchange Binance also announced that it would stop accepting cards from sanctioned banks in Russia. The restriction in question includes Mastercard and Visa. These cardholders will be unavailable to use their cards on Binance.

Meanwhile, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said in this tweet that they were not banning all Russians from using the cryptocurrency trading platform. “We are not preemptively banning all Russians from using Coinbase. We believe everyone deserves access to basic financial services unless the law says otherwise,” he explained.