Blanket Ban placed by European Nation as part of sanctions
Sanctions placed
As part of the eight round of sanctions the European Nation has now banned crypto services to Russia. The ban is a blanket ban, a blanket ban means a complete or total ban.
In a press release on Thursday the European Commission made the following statement:
“The existing prohibitions on crypto assets have been tightened by banning all crypto-asset wallets, accounts, or custody services, irrespective of the amount of the wallet,”
The sanctions are meant to be hard-hitting and has been closely-coordinated with other international partners in a response to the continued belligerent attacks against the country of Ukraine.
Crypto,IT, and more denied
The new sanction package introduces new EU import bans as well totaling $6.9 billion dollars in an effort to curb all revenues of Russia and restrict all exports. The goal is to further deprive the Kremlin of key components and technologies needed by Russia to continue its unjust campaign.
Recently it has become known that Russia has been using cryptocurrency to complete transactions and keep money flowing in and out of the country. Those extremely wealthy that were to be hit by the sanctions were able to use crypto to find a loophole of sorts and keep things going. The existing prohibitions on crypto have now been tightened as all crypto-asset wallets, accounts, or custody services- no matter how little or how much is in the wallet, are now banned. The original prohibitions were set or wallets up to $9000 USD but currently it doesn’t matter the amount , all wallets are banned. Russia is now no longer to be provided with IT consultancy, legal advisory,architecture, and engineering services.
In an effort for peace
All of these sanctions come as the result of Russia’s continued aggressions and threats of nuclear attacks. The sanctions package will use the wide range of services being rejected from Russia as a way to weaken Russia and its war effort.
Crypto was added in February’s sanctions as leaders in Europe and America believed the country could use the crypto industry in efforts to bypass trade restrictions.
Bitcoin is peer-to-peer and permissionless and thus it is much harder for authorities to cut off trade.Many foreign criminals have used blockchain technology to circumvent rules and regulations. These methods have afforded some criminal organizations to build new ransomware schemes or even fund new nuclear weapons.
Despite the fact that most crypto uses highly transparent public ledgers and that moving significant amounts of funds has proven difficult there are fears that cyber criminals will eventually find a way around any issues that plague them. This has led to Senator Elizabeth Warren proposing a bill that targets node validators and the developers that helped Russian entities facilitate transactions all the way back in March of this year.
