Earlier this month, the EU imposed its eighth round of sanctions on Russia. A major aspect of the EU's sanctions was banning all crypto services to Russian investors.
However, many crypto exchanges have not imposed any restrictions on their Russian clients and continue to offer their services.
In April, Kraken refused to follow the EU’s suggestions of setting a cap of £10K on transactions made using Russian accounts. The exchange has not complied with any demands put forth by the EU’s latest sanctions.
Similarly, FTX has not refrained from providing its services to Russian users. The same holds true for Houbi, Bybit and KuCoin.
Analysts argue that crypto platforms will not rush to ban Russian users as doing so may cause severe losses for the firms.
Many speculate EU’s sanctions may result in Russia developing its own crypto market.
One such example is the case of Exmo. In April, European exchange Exmo pulled out of Russia.
Exmo cited risks associated with operating in “high risk regions” as the reason behind selling its Russian operations and domain name to a local vendor. Interestingly, Exmo.me now provides crypto trading facilities to Russian users amid the EU’s bans.
According to economist Anatoly Aksakov,
“These restrictions stimulate the development of modern technologies. Next year will be the year of digital financial assets in Russia.”
