As part of its eighth round of sanctions, the European Union placed a blanket ban upon crypto services to Russian entities. As part of its eighth round of sanctions against Russia, the European Union banned all crypto services for Russian entities.
“The existing restrictions on crypto assets have now been tightened by banning any crypto-asset wallets, accounts or custody services irrespective of their amount,” reads the press release of the European Commission.
The original limit, , was established in April. This allowed these services to continue servicing Russian wallets with EUR 10,000 or less.
These increased sanctions are meant to punish Russia’s “continued escalation, illegal war against Ukraine”, including the mobilization of additional troops as well as openly releasing nuclear threats.
This package will increase the number of services that cannot be provided to Russians and the Russian government. It includes IT consulting, legal advice, architecture, engineering services, and IT consultancy. According to the commission, Russia is highly dependent on imports of these services.
This new restriction comes just a day after the EU published key rules regarding crypto regulation. One of the laws passed contained a requirement that wallet service providers verify the identities of users.
After imposing sanctions in February, the United States and European leaders immediately turned their attention to crypto. They feared that the growing industry would help Russia get around their trade restrictions.
It is much more difficult for Western authorities in the West to stop trade that has been facilitated by cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.
This technology has been used by foreign criminal organizations in ransomware schemes, and even financing nuclear weapons.
There are limitations to cryptocurrency: Most cryptocurrencies use transparent public ledgers that allow for very little transaction privacy.
It’s therefore difficult to transfer large amounts of money across the network without expert help.
However, Senator Elizabeth Warren has not ceased to propose a bill aiming node validators as well as software developers that would facilitate transactions for sanctioned Russian entities.
The crypto think tank Coin Center deemed that measure “unnecessary and unconstitutional” at the time.
