Russians were advised to withdraw cryptocurrencies from European platforms

The prohibition for European cryptocurrency companies to work with Russian users, prescribed in the eighth sanctions package, will be quite critical for the latter. This was stated by Cryplogger interviewed experts.

The new sanctions apply to all registered in the EU centralized VASP: exchanges, wallets, mining pools. For such platforms, compliance with the requirements of regulators is a prerequisite for the provision of services to European users.

“Many exchanges have received licenses to operate in the EU, and therefore, most likely, will be forced to comply with new sanctions. I would recommend that Russian cryptocurrency owners think about temporarily withdrawing their funds from such platforms,” said Andrey Tugarin, Managing Partner at GMT Legal.

For large exchanges – Binance, Coinbase, Crypto.com – the European market is more important than the Russian market, Mikhail Chobanyan, founder of the Ukrainian exchange Kuna, continues. Fearing secondary sanctions, they are likely to comply with EU requirements.

The expert suggested that Binance could provide some resistance to regulatory pressure, since the exchange, according to him, is “a key intermediary for the withdrawal of assets from the Russian Federation.”

“However, in the end, Binance will also refuse to work with Russia, because the market of France or Italy, where it recently received a license, is much more important purely economically,” Chobanyan explained.

The founder of Kuna believes that under the new conditions, the most advanced Russian clients of centralized exchanges will begin to switch to DEX. The rest of the users, especially those who are still on the territory of the Russian Federation, will be “in total isolation.”

“In principle, the situation is win-win. Firstly, the possibility of circumventing sanctions with the help of cryptocurrencies is blocked, and secondly, the development of decentralized protocols, wallets and other services is being stimulated,” Mikhail Chobanyan added.

Andrey Tugarin agrees with him, who also suggests the emergence of new opportunities for the DeFi sector and non-custodial platforms.

“On such sites, verification with a passport is not required, therefore it is not possible to unequivocally establish that the wallet belongs to some state,” he said.

CEO of Indefibank Sergey Mendeleev is skeptical about the imposed sanctions, because “[россиян в ЕС] and they didn’t complain that much.” As an alternative, Asian solutions and brokers will remain, for example, Cryptorg (Binance uses the services of the latter). The expert is sure that in general, work with cryptocurrency for Russian users will not change.

“Personally, I don’t care at all, although I’m used to Binance, but I’ll also get used to any other exchange. Cryptocurrencies were invented just to resist idiotic prohibitions,” Mendeleev concluded.

Recall that on October 6, the European Union approved the eighth package of sanctions against the Russian Federation. It, among other things, prohibits citizens and residents of Russia from owning cryptocurrency wallets, creating accounts or storing digital assets in the eurozone, regardless of the amount of the deposit.

The prohibition for European cryptocurrency companies to work with Russian users, prescribed in the eighth sanctions package, will be quite critical for the latter. This was stated by Cryplogger interviewed experts.

The new sanctions apply to all registered in the EU centralized VASP: exchanges, wallets, mining pools. For such platforms, compliance with the requirements of regulators is a prerequisite for the provision of services to European users.

“Many exchanges have received licenses to operate in the EU, and therefore, most likely, will be forced to comply with new sanctions. I would recommend that Russian cryptocurrency owners think about temporarily withdrawing their funds from such platforms,” said Andrey Tugarin, Managing Partner at GMT Legal.

For large exchanges – Binance, Coinbase, Crypto.com – the European market is more important than the Russian market, Mikhail Chobanyan, founder of the Ukrainian exchange Kuna, continues. Fearing secondary sanctions, they are likely to comply with EU requirements.

The expert suggested that Binance could provide some resistance to regulatory pressure, since the exchange, according to him, is “a key intermediary for the withdrawal of assets from the Russian Federation.”

“However, in the end, Binance will also refuse to work with Russia, because the market of France or Italy, where it recently received a license, is much more important purely economically,” Chobanyan explained.

The founder of Kuna believes that under the new conditions, the most advanced Russian clients of centralized exchanges will begin to switch to DEX. The rest of the users, especially those who are still on the territory of the Russian Federation, will be “in total isolation.”

“In principle, the situation is win-win. Firstly, the possibility of circumventing sanctions with the help of cryptocurrencies is blocked, and secondly, the development of decentralized protocols, wallets and other services is being stimulated,” Mikhail Chobanyan added.

Andrey Tugarin agrees with him, who also suggests the emergence of new opportunities for the DeFi sector and non-custodial platforms.

“On such sites, verification with a passport is not required, therefore it is not possible to unequivocally establish that the wallet belongs to some state,” he said.

CEO of Indefibank Sergey Mendeleev is skeptical about the imposed sanctions, because “[россиян в ЕС] and they didn’t complain that much.” As an alternative, Asian solutions and brokers will remain, for example, Cryptorg (Binance uses the services of the latter). The expert is sure that in general, work with cryptocurrency for Russian users will not change.

“Personally, I don’t care at all, although I’m used to Binance, but I’ll also get used to any other exchange. Cryptocurrencies were invented just to resist idiotic prohibitions,” Mendeleev concluded.

Recall that on October 6, the European Union approved the eighth package of sanctions against the Russian Federation. It, among other things, prohibits citizens and residents of Russia from owning cryptocurrency wallets, creating accounts or storing digital assets in the eurozone, regardless of the amount of the deposit.