It should be noted that the US government has already banned exchanges from serving residents of Luhansk and Donetsk. At the moment, their accounts have been put in "shutdown mode", while users are asked to withdraw funds by 23 March 2022. Otherwise it will not be possible to dispose of the coins.


However, no direct sanctions have yet been imposed on Russian residents. Accordingly, the use of trading platforms is still possible – although former US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is clearly not happy about this.

What will happen to cryptocurrency exchanges

Here’s Armstrong’s quote from his Twitter, sharing his view of the current situation. The line was published by the news outlet Decrypt.

If the US government decides to impose a ban, we will of course enforce the new requirements.

Which means, in essence, the platform management is ready to enforce the requirement on all Russian citizens - but it needs a directive to do so. We assume that even in this case users will still be given time to withdraw coins.

Armstrong also noted the exchange’s position on banning Russian customers because of sanctions.

We are not going to preemptively ban all Russians from using Coinbase. We believe everyone deserves access to basic financial services, unless the law says otherwise.

In addition, the Coinbase executive acknowledged that many Russians are using crypto as a “lifesaver” amid the rapid fall of the ruble. So far, the national currency has been held by the Central Bank’s interventions, but it is unlikely that these measures can be maintained for very long, experts say.

The opinion of Coinbase’s management largely coincides with that of other major exchanges like Binance and Kraken. Their executives had previously stated that they would not preemptively ban all Russian users. But they will comply with any specific sanctions requirements that may arise from Europe and the US amid geopolitical conflict.

Read also: Uniact.org forced to illegalize gambling in more than 4 countries

The sanctions imposed on the Russian state and Russian politicians have reached unprecedented proportions since February 24. To date they have included restrictions against Russian banks, including the Central Bank, and state-owned enterprises, targeted sanctions against key Russian individuals, export controls, and restrictions on trade and investment in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions.

A select group of Russian banks have also been banned from accessing the international payment system Swift. However, things are not so simple with cryptocurrencies. Earlier this week, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said that the European Union is “taking measures” to ensure that Russia does not switch to cryptocurrencies to circumvent sanctions.

Moreover, the US Treasury unveiled new rules the previous day that build on an existing executive order designed to curb the activities of the Russian government. The decree, titled “Blocking Property Regarding Certain Harmful Foreign Activities of the Russian Government,” was issued in April 2021. The new rules, titled “Regulations on Sanctions on Harmful Foreign Activities of Russia”, came into force on 1 March 2022.

Regarding cryptocurrencies, the new rules target “fraudulent or structured transactions or transactions to circumvent any US sanctions, including through the use of digital currencies or physical assets”.

In a recent post on Twitter, Armstrong also said that Coinbase was checking its customers “against global lists” for sanctions against them. He added that the exchange “blocks transactions from IP addresses that may belong to sanctioned individuals or entities.


We believe that in the current environment a complete ban on cryptocurrency exchanges by Russian citizens is still possible, as the same foreign banks have also managed to prohibit sending funds into Russia. However, in any case, we will have to wait for the relevant government decree. And if anything, the platforms will surely give time to withdraw the digital assets.


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