It was reported that the website of the cryptocurrency exchange contains information on pyramid schemes, but no details were provided in support of this claim. Similar bans have been placed before.
Roskomnadzor, Russia’s state media monitoring agency, blocked the OKX website on October 4. According to the agency, the website was blocked by Roskomnadzor, the Russian state media monitoring service.
Roskomnadzor stated to the local media outlet RBC OKX had published “information related to the activities of financial pyramids as well as information on the provision of financial services by persons who don’t have the right” to do so under Russian law. The website is blocked by Russia but it can still be accessed via a VPN.
Another local report stated that the OKX Russian-language Discord channel administration said , “We don’t recommend using a VPN to access OKX because this will trigger our risks controls and could lead to a ban on our account.”
OKX was established in China, and is currently located in Seychelles. It is not subject to Western sanctions.
It was reported to have failed to respond to an order made by South Korean authorities to block accounts associated with Do Kwon, Terraform Labs founder. However, OKX is well-known for its sponsorships of Manchester City soccer , and auto racing.
Similar website blockages have happened before, and were successfully challenged by Russian courts. Between September 2020 and January 20,21, Binance was blocked by Russia’s Roskomnadzor. A regional court reversed this decision. Russia blocked six cryptocurrency news websites between September 2020 and January 2021. However, Bits.media was able to have its block lifted by a district court decision a week later, though it remained on Roskomnadzor’s blacklist.
Roskomnadzor repelled Cointelegraph in 2019 shortly after it was placed on the blocked list for 2 years.
