After Russia invaded Ukraine in the last week of February 2022, the western sanctions against Russia have piled up. As western and EU countries rush to block Russia from access to Western financing, and also mulling about possible SWIFT-system removal of Russian financial institutions, we have more to come!
The CEO of Kraken, one of the most famous crypto exchanges of the world, Jesse Powell, has put forth his opinion about blocking Russian users access to the crypto platform.
After the Deputy Prime Minister and Digital Transformation Minister of Ukraine [Mykhailo Fedorov] requesed crypto exchanges around the world to disable access to Russian users, Jesse Powell said:
What Did Kraken CEO Say?
“I understand the rationale for this request but, despite my deep respect for the Ukrainian people, [Kraken] cannot freeze the accounts of our Russian clients without a legal requirement to do so.”
However, the Ukrainian Deputy PM says “it’s crucial to freeze not only the addresses linked to Russian and Belarusian politicians, but also to sabotage ordinary users.”
If any crypto exchange goes ahead with blocking Russian users on their platform, the global crypto market will suffer.
So far, an NFT marketplace DMarket has decided to block the accounts of all users from Russia and Belarus and Fedorov had words of appreciation for the platform for their move.
As per google search trends, the searches for ‘BTC’ and ‘USDT’ have been on the rise.
Crypto Donations To Ukraine
Subsequently, Ukrainian officials and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have raised $14.2 million in anonymous crypto donations till 4 pm Sunday, notes blockchain analysis company Elliptic. The swift response was noted from many places across the globe, this includes a single donation worth $1.86 million, which appears to have originated from the sale of NFTs originally intended to raise funds for Julian Assange.
“I have talked to the embassy of @Ukraine to the @WTO and the embassy has replied to me in 5 mins that “the information you have is correct!” So all the addresses have been verified! Let’s do it! Don’t miss this chance!,” tweeted Justin Sun, Founder of Tron crypto
