Switzerland Will Start Freezing Russian Crypto Assets: Report

Switzerland will start freezing Russian crypto assets, breaking in centuries of neutrality due to the war that Russia inflicted on Ukraine so let’s read more about it in today’s latest crypto news.

According to the reports from the Financial Times, the Swiss federal government plans to freeze all crypto assets owned by Russian citizens as well as businesses within the country’s borders. The freeze will coincide with the sanctions already imposed by the EU in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Swiss finance minister Guy Parmelin said that about 223 Russians and associates of President Vladimir Putin, had their bank accounts and assets frozen by the country in the past week and the crypto prohibitions are only an additional step beyond EU sanctions.

As Switzerland will start freezing crypto assets of Russian users, the senior official with the finance ministry said that this step is necessary because the country wants to protect the integrity of the blockchain industry. According to a report by CV VC, the Swiss Venture capitalist firm, about 1128 blockchain companies called Switzerland and Lichtenstein their home.

The European Union also announced more plans to crack down on Russia’s ability to evade the economic sanctions using crypto. France’s Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said:

“We are taking measures, in particular on cryptocurrencies or crypto assets which should not be used to circumvent the financial sanctions decided upon by the 27 EU countries.”

The calls for exchanges like Binance and Coinbase to ban and to freeze Russian access to crypto-only enhance the borderless nature of crypto. While the exchanges can freeze and restrict access, crypto kept in cold storage will be harder to confiscate or seize unless the holders try to move it through restricted channels. The official said:

“If someone holds their crypto key themselves then, wherever they are, it’s going to be virtually impossible to identify them. But if they are using crypto services—funds, exchanges, and so on—these service points we can target.”

Also as recently reported, The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority- FINMA will require local digital asset providers to follow new rules and prevent criminals from using crypto. The regulator also turned its sight towards BTC ATMs as they believe that the drug dealers often use these machines. As per the reports, Switzerland considers imposing AML rules that will supervise local crypto providers as an attempt to clamp down on all illicit money laundering transactions.