Bowing to political and consumer pressure, cryptocurrency trading platform %Coinbase Global ($COIN) has blocked 25,000 wallet addresses related to Russia.
The trading platform said the addresses were blocked over fears that %Cryptocurrencies could be used to evade worldwide sanctions imposed on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.
Coinbase’s chief legal officer, Paul Grewal, made the announcement in a company blog post. He outlined how the cryptocurrency exchange was complying with new rules imposed because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Coinbase blocks over 25,000 addresses related to Russian individuals or entities we believe to be engaging in illicit activity, many of which we have identified through our own proactive investigations,” Grewal wrote in the blog post.
The U.S. government had asked cryptocurrency platforms to help ensure Russian oligarchs and others could not use virtual currencies to avoid economic sanctions.
But many are resisting pressure from both Ukraine’s government and U.S. and European politicians to go further and ban all Russian users, amid concern normal Russians might be using cryptocurrencies as a financial lifeline after the value of the ruble currency sank to a record low.
Shutting down Coinbase’s operations in Russia would just hurt ordinary citizens, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Brian Armstrong has said. We are not pre-emptively banning all Russians from using Coinbase,” he tweeted.