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Coinbase announced that it had blocked 25,000 cryptocurrency accounts linked to Russian entities or companies. The blocked total of accounts is not tied to a response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It is, in fact, the total number of Russian addresses blocked by the platform at all, also considering past sanctions. In the past, for example, 1,200 addresses have been blocked after US sanctions. According to the platform, cryptocurrencies are not a tool to avoid international sanctions.
Coinbase’s point of view on the relationship between sanctions and cryptocurrencies
According to Coinbase, cryptocurrencies are not a way to circumvent international sanctions applied to Russia, as it had been hypothesized over the last few days. Transactions on the blockchain, Coinbase points out in a post on his blog, they are traceable, permanent and public. Using digital assets is a useful system for detecting and discouraging the evasion of international sanctionsmuch more than normal traditional transactions.
The case of Russia
According to Coinbase’s point of view, try to avoiding sanctions through cryptocurrencies would be impossible. Russia and other sanctioned entities are expected to own a number of digital assets that, in fact, do not exist. At the same time, it would be much more difficult to evade sanctions with cryptocurrencies than with traditional methods. It should be noted that Coinbase has specified that it is always ready to inform law enforcement whenever suspicious activity is detected.