Coinbase Blocked 25K Russian Addresses Related To Illicit Activity

Coinbase blocked 25K Russian addresses on the platform that were allegedly related to illicit activities as we can see further in today’s latest Coinbase news.

The leading US-based crypto exchange Coinbase blocked 25K Russian addresses related to individuals that were reportedly engaging in illegal activities. According to the official blog post, the leading US-based exchange blocked the addresses that belonged to Russian individuals that they believe were engaging in illicit activities and most of them were identified via the platform’s protective investigations. Further, the company shared the addresses with the US government to support the sanctions enforcement.

During the onboarding, Coinbase checked account applications against the list of sanctioned invidious and entities like the ones maintained by the US, UK, EU, Singapore, Japan, Canada, and the United Nations. In any case, the move came a few days after the CEO of the exchange said they will comply with the sanctions against Russia only if the government demands them to. Most brought up the question of whether crypto can be used to avoid sanctions imposed on Russia after their attack on Ukraine. Brian Armstrong, the CEO of Coinbase said that he doesn’t think there’s a high chance of that:

“That being said, we don’t think there’s a high risk of Russian oligarchs using crypto to avoid sanctions. Because it is an open ledger, trying to sneak lots of money through crypto would be more traceable than using U.S. dollars cash, art, gold, or other assets.”

In the same thread, Armstrong stressed that coinbase won’t be banning Russians from using the exchange preemptively.

As recently reported, Coinbase’s view is in line with other exchanges like Kraken and Binance which said they will not ban all Russian users while also claiming they will comply with the specific sanctions requirements that will arise but other exchanges took a different view. The Ukraine minister of Digital Transformation requested the major exchanges block Russian users but Coinbase denies Ukraine’s request to do so. Instead, Coinbase and others pointed towards compliance with international sanctions. Ukraine raked in $20 million in BTC donations earmarked for military support after being invaded by Russian forces but it is aware that the enemy can just as easily use crypto to get sanctions and relieve economic pressure on the people.