The European Union expands prohibitions on the work of crypto companies with users from Russia – Bits Media

European politicians continue to be afraid to use cryptocurrencies by Russians to detour sanctions. As part of the fifth package of sanctions, the European Union Council forbade Russians access to "large" crypto services.

In the presented package, financial sanctions and access to large cryptocurrency services is determined. The European Union also imposes sanctions on four large Russian banks and a ban on the provision of financial consulting services for rich Russian citizens.

European officials think, that the new ban on providing services with cryptocurrency services to Russians will close “potential holes”, Although so far there have been no evidence of cryptocurrencies to bypass sanctions. Earlier President of the ECB Kristin Lagard (Christine Lagarde) announced the use of digital assets to bypass sanctions, However, she did not have real evidence.

Binance Exchange CEO Changpeng Zhao (Changpeng Zhao) I expressed an opinion, that using cryptocurrencies to avoid economic sanctions is useless, since law enforcement officers are more better than tracking transactions.

In March, the analytical company Chainalysis reported, that the frequent use of cryptocurrencies by Russians is not related to attempts to avoid sanctions. At the same time, according to the assessment of the Russian authorities, At the moment, in the cryptocurrencies of Russian citizens are assets worth more than 10 TRLN rubles.