Ripple’s CEO Explained Why Russia Can’t Bypass Sanctions With Crypto

Ripple’s CEO explained why Russia can’t bypass the sanctions with crypto in the ongoing war with Ukraine as we can see further in today’s latest cryptocurrency news today.

Crypto has played a huge role in the geopolitical tensions between Ukraine and Russia. Ukraine already started receiving BTC donations from across the world and there are more concerns that Russia can use the digital assets to mitigate the growing sanctions. The concerns came off the back of the strict economic sanctions that are imposed on Russia by a few western nations like barring the banks from accessing SWIFT. After rejecting propositions to block Russian crypto accounts, the digital asset space witnessed some speculation and most of it about how the broader crypto industry can suffer If the regulators imposed heavy sanctions ont the exchanges for allowing the Russian users to use its anonymous nature to continue operation.

I continue to see asinine arguments from uninformed pundits of how crypto works. I want to reiterate what @ashgoblue said yesterday – there are factual reasons why crypto can’t be used on the broad scale for Russia to evade sanctions. https://t.co/WmQC4sHcSa https://t.co/Pk2fy9iUV8

— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) March 2, 2022

Ripple’s CEO explained on Twitter why the Russians can’t use crypto to evade the global sanctions. Backing comments made by Asheesh Birla, Garlinghouse noted that the trading platforms work together with a few banking partners that risk losing licenses if they get blacklisted for bypassing every security measure put in place. According to Garlinghouse, it was to prevent these incidents that crypto exchanges established stringent measures like KYC and AML policies. He added:

 “RippleNet, for example, has always been – and remains today – committed to NOT working with sanctioned banks or countries that are restricted counterparties. Ripple and our customers support and enforce OFAC laws and KYC/AML.”

Garlinghouse pointed out the argument that crypto is often used by criminals to launder funds but this argument according to him, is outdated and tired:

“Instead of listening to responsible players who have been clear they will abide by legal sanctions, some pundits and media insist on continuing to paint crypto as the Silk Road – both an exceptionally outdated and tired argument which simply doesn’t hold true today.”

Former US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton criticized exchanges for their refusal to stop servicing Russian-basked users and she even said that she is disappointed.