Despite decentralisation and a belief in independence from governments, many crypto platforms have also joined the sanctions against Russia. They have argued that they need to comply with international financial regulators. For example, Coinbase found more than 25,000 Russian accounts linked to illegal transactions and then blocked them.

However, among the crypto-exchanges, there were also those who argued that restricting access to their services to Russians who were not on the sanctions list was wrong. Among them is Bitfinex, a cryptocurrency exchange.

Will cryptocurrency exchanges block Russians

Bitfinex, a subsidiary of the world’s largest stabelcoin issuer Tether (USDT), will not unilaterally freeze the accounts of regular Russian customers as part of global sanctions, unless it is forced to do so through a corresponding decree. This statement was made in an interview with the news outlet Cointelegraph by Bitfinex chief technology officer Paolo Ardoino.

Ardoino stressed that Bitfinex has taken appropriate measures for the accounts of Russian users who have fallen under sanctions. Here is his quote on the matter, in which he shares his view of the situation.

As with all of our accounts, we are working to ensure that there are no improper measures that may contradict applicable international sanctions.

Paolo Ardoino, Chief Technical Officer of Bitfinex

According to Bitfinex management, blocking all ordinary Russians because of the ongoing conflict may be unfair from a human point of view, as the actions of governments do not necessarily apply to ordinary citizens. Ardoino continues.

We believe that government action does not necessarily reflect the wishes of individuals. Unless the regulators who run us have been instructed otherwise, we want to protect the accounts of all our customers.

In other words, in the current situations, Russian citizens who use this crypto platform are not in any danger. That said, the situation could change at any moment.

For some Bitfinex users from Russia, the exchange will still close

Ardoino declined to comment on the exchange’s activities in Russia, saying only that “Bitfinex does serve Russian customers”. According to Bitfinex’s customer service rules, a “sanctioned person” is a person or crypto-address either directly listed on the sanctions list or indirectly linked to the sanctions list.

Note that Bitfinex is not the only crypto-exchange that wants to continue working with Russian citizens amid global geopolitical concerns. Bittrex chief compliance officer Michael Carter said that the cryptocurrency exchange is keen to ensure compliance with sanctions while creating “minimal disruption to law-abiding traders”, including in Russia. London-based cryptocurrency exchange Exmo also continues to support its Russian customers.

Some of the high-profile officials hit by the sanctions

We think this is a logical compromise against the backdrop of pressure on major crypto platforms. After all, they work closely with banks and payment systems, so completely refusing to comply with sanctions would be fraught with huge government restrictions on them. In addition, the link with banks would prevent users from interacting with crypto under illegal circumstances. Finally, if anything, the US government could actually restrict access to the platforms for Russian citizens - the day before this affected residents of Luhansk and Donetsk.

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