EU bans providing 'high-value crypto-asset services' to Russia

cointelegraph.com:

The Council of the European Union has cut Russians off from certain cryptocurrency services as part of a package of restrictive measures against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “brutal aggression against Ukraine and its people.”

In a Friday announcement, the EU council said it would be closing potential loopholes in using digital assets for Russian entities and individuals to evade sanctions with a “prohibition on providing high-value crypto-asset services” to the country. The action was one of three financial measures the European Commission proposed alongside banning transactions and freezing assets connected to four Russian banks as well as a “prohibition on providing advice on trusts to wealthy Russians.”

Russian prime minister Mikhail Mishustin claimed on Thursday that Russians hold more than $130 billion in crypto assets — an amount reportedly comparable to the country’s gold holdings, valued at roughly $140 billion as of March 2022. Though it’s unclear whether Russian nationals and banks named in sanctions from both the United States and European Union are attempting to use crypto to evade these restrictions, the narrative persists among many lawmakers and regulators.

The EU has adopted new sanctions in response to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. These include a ban on: imports from Russia of coal Russian vessels from accessing EU ports Russian and Belarusian road transport operatorsMore ⬇️#StandWithUkraine

The European Commission included crypto assets as part of its sanctions announced in March targeted against Russia and Belarus in response to the invasion of Ukraine. In the United States, the Treasury Department warned companies and individuals not to facilitate crypto transactions sent to