Centralized Exchanges Refuse Asset Freeze On All Russian Users

Centralized Exchanges refuse to freeze assets on all Russian users but if the Western sanctions ramp up, the CEXs might not have another choice so let’s read furhter in today’s latest cryptocurrency news.

Centralized exchanges refuse to freeze the assets on all Russian users and many companies like Kraken, Coinbase and binance stated they will only do so if the US government strictly demands them to. A few days ago, Mykhailo Fedorov as the vice PM of Ukraine, called for all crypto exchanges to block wallet addresses of Russians and to sabotage the ordinary users by simply freezing their assets. However, the CEO of Coinbase Brian Armstrong wrote:

“We believe everyone deserves access to basic financial services unless the law says otherwise. Some ordinary Russians are using crypto as a lifeline now that their currency has collapsed. Many of them likely oppose what their country is doing, and a ban would hurt them, too.”

Armstrong also noted that if the US Government decides to impose a ban, they will follow the rules. The sentiments were shared by Kraken CEO Jesse Powell who said:

“Kraken cannot freeze the accounts of our Russian clients without a legal requirement to do so. Russians should be aware that such a requirement could be imminent.”

The unsanctioned individuals seem to be feeling all the effects of the sanctions and the day before Binance announced the cardholders of the sanctioned users from Russia will not be able to use them on the platform, one Redditor also raised the issue for Iranian enthusiasts that face the same issues amid the calls for CEXs to crack down on Russian customers, claiming:

“It’s already happened to Iranian accounts. We’ve been blocked out of Binance for two years, and no one’s said shit. Are we not innocent?”

Despite the sanctions, it seems that there are ways to bypass them as one KuCoin moderator wrote:

“Users from Iran can use our exchange, but KYC [Know Your Customer] is not supported. If you wish to proceed without doing KYC, you may still perform all functions on our exchange as normal, even if you are not verified. However, there will be a withdrawal limit of 5 BTC per 24 hours for unverified accounts.”

The CEX bans on Iranian IP addresses can be avoided by using a VPN and one crypto enthusiast from Iran even said that cryptocurrencies like BTC, are needed in the first place to buy VPNs in Iran because these services don’t accept fiat payments from people in Iran due to the sanctions.