Here’s How Russians Dodge Sanctions to Use Int’l Crypto Exchanges
Russian crypto holders have reportedly used simple workarounds to evade sanctions – and trade on overseas crypto exchanges.
In the wake of the war in Ukraine, Western leaders have imposed sanctions on most leading Russian banks.
Account holders at these banks, thus, are effectively blocked from using fiat on/off ramps at major international crypto exchanges.
Platforms automatically block transactions that make mention of the Russian banks on United States government-curated sanctions lists.
But, Kommersant reported, many exchanges only check self-reported transaction declarations from senders.
As such, the media outlet wrote:
“Russians have been able to bypass restrictions. Instead of Sberbank, for example, they write ‘green bank;’ instead of Alfa-Bank, they write ‘red’ or ‘A-Bank.’ And instead of ‘Tinkoff,’ they write ‘yellow.’”
As a result, the media outlet noted, “about half of all [Russian] transactions” over the past six months “were carried out via firms included on the US Treasury’s sanctions list.”
Experts claimed that international exchanges would likely close this loophole.
They said that platforms know failure to do so would likely result in repercussions from American regulators.
The media outlet noted that crypto exchanges now have tools that let them detect if transactions originate from Russian banks.
Even if crypto exchanges and their partners close this loophole, a former Binance Russia/CIS executive claimed, crypto-trading Russians will likely continue to bypass sanctions using other means.
The expert stated that while the “majority” of Russian token traders “use sanctioned banks,” there are now “more platforms [that let Russians] conduct transactions.”
The expert said the fast-growing Russian P2P market was an
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